How to delete a large number of small files in Linux?

To delete a large number of small files, you can use the following command:

1. Use the find command to locate the files that need to be deleted.

find /path/to/directory -type f -name "pattern" -delete

The command will delete all files that match the specified pattern in the directory located at /path/to/directory.

1. Delete using xargs command with find command:

find /path/to/directory -type f -name "pattern" | xargs rm -f

This command will pass the output of the find command as a parameter to the rm command to delete the matching files.

1. Use the find command with the exec option to delete.

find /path/to/directory -type f -name "pattern" -exec rm -f {} +

This command will pass the output of the find command as parameters to the rm command to delete matching files. Using {} + allows multiple file parameters to be passed to the rm command at once, which is more efficient.

The command above can be adjusted as needed to accommodate different deletion requirements. It is important to ensure that the file you are about to delete is the correct one before proceeding, in order to avoid mistakenly deleting important files.