How can I delete a specific file from a set of results using the find command in Linux?

Posted by PeanutsMonkey on Super User See other posts from Super User or by PeanutsMonkey
Published on 2012-09-22T08:11:14Z Indexed on 2012/09/22 9:40 UTC
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I have the following command that lists all files with the extension doc, docx, etc.

find . -maxdepth 1 -iname \*.doc\*

The command returns numerous files some of which I would like to delete. So for example the results returned are

  1. Example.docx
  2. Dummydata.doc
  3. Sample.doc

I would like to delete Sample.doc and Dummydata.docx. How do I delete the files using the -exec option. Am I able to pass in the names of the files e.g. rm Dummydata.docx Sample.doc hence the command would look as follows

find . -maxdepth 1 -iname \*.doc\* -exec rm Dummydata.docx Sample.doc

Can I pass the names of the files within {} afterrm`? e.g.

find . -maxdepth 1 -iname \*.doc\* -exec rm {Dummydata.docx} Sample.doc

Is there a better way of doing it?

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