Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!cica!iuvax!maytag!xenitec!edhew
From: edhew@xenitec.on.ca (Ed Hew)
Newsgroups: comp.unix.xenix
Subject: Re: ENORMOUS pathname
Message-ID: <1990Feb7.084600.548@xenitec.on.ca>
Date: 7 Feb 90 08:46:00 GMT
References: <350@spcc386.UUCP>
Reply-To: edhew@xenitec.UUCP (Ed Hew)
Followup-To: comp.unix.xenix
Distribution: comp
Organization: XeniTec Consulting Services, Kitchener, ON, Canada
Lines: 24

In article <350@spcc386.UUCP> stefan@spcc386.UUCP (Stefan Posthuma) writes:
>Hi there,
>
>A directory-handling program went berzerk and now I have this path with
>about two hundred directories in there. I have tried but there seems to be
>no way to get rid of it. The shell breaks when I go deep enough, rm -r goofs
>up, fsck fails, rmdir crashes and so on.
>I am running SCO Xenix 386 2.3.1
>
>Bright ideas anyone?

Unless I'm missing something totally obvious here, the (RTFM) answer
is under find(c)

	cd bad_dir;find . -name "*" -exec rm {} \;

That can be simplified.
(rm can of course be replaced by any applicable valid command.)

> uunet!mcvax!spcc386!stefan

  Ed. A. Hew         SCO Authorized Instructor         Xeni/Con Corporation
  work:  edhew@xenicon.uucp	 -or-	 ..!{uunet!}utai!lsuc!xenicon!edhew
->home:	 edhew@xenitec.on.ca	 -or-	   ..!{uunet!}watmath!xenitec!edhew