remove with double-asterisk wildcards does not work

Question

i have the following files under test directory

.
./test2
./test2/test_doc1.txt
./test2/test1
./test2/test1/test_doc2.txt

when I use rm -rf test/**/test_doc2.txt, it does not remove the files. what is wrong?

What is the output of this command? – xuhdev Mar 08 '17 at 10:17 — xuhdev, Mar 08 '17 at 10:17
@xuhdev, silent. no message. and the file remains. – pepero Mar 08 '17 at 10:20 — pepero, Mar 08 '17 at 10:20

score 5 · Accepted Answer · answered Mar 08 '17 at 10:21

5

Assuming you are using Bash.

shopt -s globstar
rm -rf test/**/test_doc2.txt

Add shopt -s globstar to your ~/.bashrc file if you always want to enable this feature.

answered Mar 08 '17 at 10:21

xuhdev

1

If you are on OSX, use `shopt -s extglob` the same way. – Simon Márton Nov 13 '17 at 15:43

1 Answers1