The Problem
I recently encountered a strange issue when trying to delete a large number of files using the rm command in Linux. Instead of working as expected, I was greeted with this error:
At first, I was puzzled. How could a simple rm * command fail?
The Cause
The issue occurs when the number of files being passed to rm exceeds the system’s limit for command-line arguments. This is controlled by the ARG_MAX limit in Linux, which restricts the total size of arguments passed to a command.
The Solution
To get around this, I used find combined with xargs to delete files in batches, avoiding the argument size limit:
This method ensures that even if you have thousands of files, they are processed in manageable chunks.
Final Thoughts
It’s always interesting when a routine task suddenly throws an unexpected error. At least I learned something new about Linux today!