trevcan@internets /dev/human $

Finding empty directories

Posted on: 03/30/22 17:53:43
Last edited: 03/30/22 17:53:43

based on this article: https://www.linuxshelltips.com/find-and-delete-empty-directories-in-linux/

Problem is: I have a linux shell script that lets me mount hard drives, usb, and other storage devices. But if I have already mounted some storage device and it has a lot of folders, my command will keep looking for empty folders where other storage devices can be mounted. In other words, I have a directory /media/ where all the folders for external devices are created. I mount my big HDD with a ton of folders to - let’s say - /media/HDD_0. Now it is available and there are thousands upon thousands of files available under /media/HDD_0. Now I want to mount another device. What my script does if find empty folders under /media/ but it will find it recursively.

So the solution is using the -maxdepth n option for the find command. This allows you to set a maximum depth in which to look. Pretty self-explanatory, right ? So in other words, if I give find a starting point of /media/ it won’t go more than n folders recursively. That’s it.

Yeah, I use the LARBS voidrice dmenumount script, apparently the github does have a max-depth but I think I removed that because I only wanted to look under /media/.

But hey, I fixed it with the magic of the internet and reading man-pages and at times bashing my head at my own hands or arms.

Tags: debugging linux files