Command for deleting temporary files ending with ~

Question

Many days ago, I found this useful bash alias (contents of my ~/.bash_aliases)

# aliases

# finds temporary files ending with '~' and deletes them
alias rm~='find . -name '*~' -print0 | xargs -0 /bin/rm -f'

Now I tried to use rm~ after cd to some directory containing 3 files ending in ~

I got this error in terminal, and files did not get deleted

find: paths must precede expression: 1n.in~
Usage: find [-H] [-L] [-P] [-Olevel] [-D help|tree|search|stat|rates|opt|exec] [path...] [expression]

Also when I tried rm~ from /home/me, it seems to be doing nothing. Or it might be taking a lot of time.

Please tell me why am I getting error, and how to fix it.

Thanks!

Answer 1

Your bash alias is not well written (the single quotes are not well used). Instead it should be:

alias rm~='find . -name "*~" -print0 | xargs -0 /bin/rm -f'

Now, I personally don't like useless uses of pipes and xargs, so your alias would be better written as:

alias rm~='find . -name "*~" -type f -exec /bin/rm -fv -- {} +'

The -type f option so as to find only files (not directories, links, etc.), the -v option to rm so as to be verbose (prints out what it's deleting). The + at the end so that find runs rm with all the found files (spawns only one instance of rm, instead of one per file).

Now from man bash:

For almost every purpose, aliases are superseded by shell functions.

Instead of an alias, it's better to use a function: comment your alias in the .bash_aliases file (i.e., put a # in front of that line), and in the file .bashrc, put this function (anywhere in the file, at the end is fine):

rm~() {
    find . -name "*~" -type f -exec /bin/rm -fv -- {} +
}

Also, as the other answer mentions, you can use the -delete command to find. In this case, your rm~ function will be:

rm~() {
    find . -name "*~" -type f -printf "Removing file %p\n" -delete
}

In fact, you can make a cool function that will take an argument, say --dry-run, that will only output what it will delete:

rm~() {
    case "$1" in
    "--dry-run")
        find . -name "*~" -type f -printf "[dry-run] Removing file %p\n"
        ;;
    "")
        find . -name "*~" -type f -printf "Removing file %p\n" -delete
        ;;
    *)
        echo "Unsupported option \`$1'. Did you mean --dry-run?"
        ;;
    esac
}

Then use as:

rm~ --dry-run

to only show the files that will be deleted (but not delete them) and then

rm~

when you're happy with this.

Adapt and extend to your needs!

Note. You'll have to open a new terminal for the changes to take effect.

Answer 2

*~ gets expanded by the shell before it gets assigned to your alias. The actual assignment is:

alias rm~='find .name some~ file~ 1n.in~ -print0 | xargs -0 /bin/rm -f'

I suggest to use functions instead of aliases, these are much more powerful and easier to handle in regard with quotes.

While we are at it, remove the superfluous . (current directory is implied if no parameters are given) and stop abusing xargs since a -delete option already exist.

rm~() { find -name '*~' -ls -delete; }

The -ls option is optional, but adding it will show you which files have been deleted.