Skip to main content

Raymii.org Raymii.org Logo

Quis custodiet ipsos custodes?
Home | About | All pages | Cluster Status | RSS Feed

Bash Bits: Find all files containing specific text (and remove them)

Published: 07-05-2019 | Author: Remy van Elst | Text only version of this article


❗ This post is over four years old. It may no longer be up to date. Opinions may have changed.


Bash Bits are small examples and tips for Bash Scripts. This bash bit shows you how to find all files containing specific text, and how to remove them.

Recently I removed all Google Ads from this site due to their invasive tracking, as well as Google Analytics. Please, if you found this content useful, consider a small donation using any of the options below:

I'm developing an open source monitoring app called Leaf Node Monitoring, for windows, linux & android. Go check it out!

Consider sponsoring me on Github. It means the world to me if you show your appreciation and you'll help pay the server costs.

You can also sponsor me by getting a Digital Ocean VPS. With this referral link you'll get $100 credit for 60 days.

All Bash Bits can be found using this link

Finding all files with specific text in them

For text news I convert news articles to plain text with readability. Recently one of the sites I convert changed their HTML, causing the parsing to fail. I fixed that in the parser, but had over 200 failed parsed articles. I wanted to remove them all. They all contain the following string:

Wij willen graag weten in welke omgeving u woont

Navigate to the folder where you want to search (recursivly):

cd /var/gopher

Search for all .txt files which have the string in them. grep -l will only write the filename of the file that contains the string.

find -iname "*.txt" | xargs grep -l "Wij willen graag weten in welke omgeving"

This will give you a list of files:

./Dutch/www.rtvdrenthe.nl/20190428T0924_Inbraak_bij_super_Barger_Oosterveld.txt
./Dutch/www.rtvdrenthe.nl/20190428T1036_Hoofdprijs_Staatsloterij_valt_in_Borger_Odoorn.txt
./Dutch/www.rtvdrenthe.nl/20190501T1304_50Plus_en_Sterk_Lokaal_samen_verder_in_de_Staten.txt
./Dutch/www.rtvdrenthe.nl/20190504T1657_Live__Dodenherdenking_Westerbork__afgesloten_.txt
./Dutch/www.rtvdrenthe.nl/20190503T0557_Drankrijder_A28_is_rijbewijs_kwijt.txt

Check them by hand, and if you're sure you want to remove them, use the following command:

find -iname "*.txt" | xargs grep -l "Wij willen graag weten in welke omgeving" | awk '{print "rm "$1}' | bash
Tags: bash , bash-bits , find , grep , remove , shell , snippets