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I have log files in a folder. These files after some size are creating a new file old_name.log1 and writing to it.

Now there are many files and I can't clear them one by one. I want to delete old_name.log1, old_name.log2 etc and clear old_name.log.

The file_name can be anything. But the file ends with .log and it's extended files ends with .log1, .log2, etc. How to do it?

Sreekanth Reddy Balne
  • 133

3 Answers3

6

Note that OP apparently wants to truncate files. In such case, the desired command is

find /path/to/dir -regextype sed -regex ".*\.log[1-9]*" -exec truncate -s 0 {} \;

Alternatively, in bash

shopt -s globstar
truncate -s 0 **/*.log[1-9]

If you want to clear out any file that has .log in the name

find /path/to/dir -name "*.log*"

If you target .log[digit] specifically, use

find /path/to/dir -regextype sed -regex ".*\.log[1-9]*"

Once you verify either of these two commands find the files you want, append -delete to the command for actual removal

Sergiy Kolodyazhnyy
  • 107,582
6

To delete .log1, .log2, etc. files:

rm *.log[1-9]*
  • rm - Delete files
  • *.log[1-9]* - All files in the current directory that contain .log followed by a digit 1-9 then anything else

To test the command before running it, replace the rm with echo. It will print the matching files.

To truncate .log files:

echo -n | tee *.log
  • echo -n - Print nothing
  • tee *.log - Write from stdin to all .log files in the current directory
wjandrea
  • 14,504
4

Quick and dirty... assuming that you have permissions for these log files and directory itself... and you wish to delete the .log* files...

  1. in a Files window, open the directory where the log files are located
  2. search for .log files
  3. Select All, control-click any files to exclude (like the active and open *.log)
  4. then Move to Trash

Note: if you wish to "clear" the .log file, close the application that makes the current .log file, then delete the current .log file with Move to Trash, and then right-click in the folder, select New Document, then Blank Document, and Rename... using the correct .log filename.

heynnema
  • 73,649