How To Fix /bin/rm: cannot execute [Argument list too long]

Fix /bin/rm: cannot execute [Argument list too long]

/bin/rm: cannot execute [Argument list too long] error is related with the rm command in Linux. The rm command is used in Linux to delete files and directories. In this Linux tutorial post, we have a solution for you.

How To Fix /bin/rm: cannot execute [Argument list too long]

What is the reason behind /bin/rm: cannot execute [Argument list too long] error?

You might see this error message when you tries to delete a large number of files in Linux. To avoid this error, Let’s have a look into the method of deleting large number of files.

Use Find Command with ‘-exec’ Argument to Delete a large number of Files

Run the following command with the '-exec' parameter of ‘find‘ that will allow you to run any command over the output of find.

$ find . -maxdepth 1 -name "<filename_pattern>" -exec rm -r {} \;

let’s have a look into the some of the basic rm commands in Linux based operating systems. You need to be careful while using the rm command, as it permanently deletes files and directories, and they cannot be recovered.

rm command to remove a file

Run the following command to remove a file named filename1.txt in the current directory:

rm filename1.txt

rm command to remove a file in a specific directory:

Run the following command to remove a file named filename2.txt located in a specific directory:

rm /path/to/directory/filename2.txt

rm command to remove multiple files at once:

Run the following command to remove multiple files at once:

rm filename1.txt filename2.txt filename3.txt

rm command to remove all files with certain extension in the current directory:

Run the following command to  remove all files with a certain extension in the current directory. In this case are moving all files with the .txt extensions.

rm *.txt

rm command to remove a directory named directory1 along with it’s contents:

Run the following command to remove a directory named directory1 and all its contents:

rm -r directory1

rm command to force the removal of a file without prompting:

Run the following command to force the removal of a file without prompting:

rm -f filename1.txt

rm command to remove file with prompt

Run the following command to prompt for confirmation before removing a file:

rm -i filename1.txt

Run the following command to remove a directory and all its contents without prompting:

rm -rf dirname1

Run the following command to  remove a symbolic link (i.e., a shortcut to a file or directory):

rm link1

Run the following command to  remove empty directories:

rmdir dirnamr1