Groovy syntax not working with backslashes

Question

I'm trying to use a backslash on the command bellow at groovy syntax:

find /path/folder-* -type f -iname "file*" -exec rm -f {} \;

When I try to build this command on a Jenkins pipeline give me an error about this syntax. Even before I do this command have a warning with red syntax on Jenkins form field saying unexpected char: '\'.

What could I do for replace or fix error with this backslash ?

Groovy commands:

node ("instance") {
    stage ("cleaning folders"){
        sh '''        
        find /root/logfiles/instance* -type f -iname "file*" -exec rm -f {} \;
        '''
    }
    stage ("instance1"){
        sh '''
        rm -f /root/logfiles/instance1/*
        echo instance1; 
        scp 100.0.0.50:/var/log/file1.log /root/logfiles/instance1/file1.log;
        scp 100.0.0.50:/var/log/file2.log /root/logfiles/instance1/file2.log;
        '''
    }
    stage ("instance1"){
        sh '''
        rm -f /root/logfiles/instance2/*
        echo instance2; 
        scp 100.0.0.51:/var/log/file1.log /root/logfiles/instance2/file1.log;
        scp 100.0.0.51:/var/log/file2.log /root/logfiles/instance2/file2.log;
        '''
    }
}

Notice: I have rm -f for all instances at this moment. Will substitute all rm -f to the find command on the stage cleaning folders.

Tks in advance

Answer 1

It might help to escape your escape character, as funny as this might sound. Just put another backslash in front of your backslash:

stage ("cleaning folders"){
    sh '''        
    find /root/logfiles/instance* -type f -iname "file*" -exec rm -f {} \\;
    '''
}

At least IntelliJ does not mark this as syntactically wrong.

Answer 2

Actually in your case I would not even bother to figure out proper escaping:

stage ("cleaning folders"){
    sh '''        
    find /root/logfiles/instance* -type f -iname "file*" -exec rm -f {} +
    '''
}

When you pass a semicolon to -exec, find constructs multiple commands, one for each result of the find operation (e.g. rm -f /root/logfiles/instance/file1.log, rm -f /root/logfiles/instance/file2.log, ...), but when you use a plus, find constructs a single command with multiple arguments, which is much more efficient and fast (e.g. rm -f /root/logfiles/instance/file1.log /root/logfiles/instance/file2.log ...). See the man page for find for more detail (sorry I can't quote the man page or provide more detail right now; I'm on mobile).

Answer 3

One solution would be to use dollar slashy which disables string interpolation and changes escape char to $.

stage ("cleaning folders"){
    sh script: $/
    find /root/logfiles/instance* -type f -iname "file*" -exec rm -f {} \;
    /$
}

Answer 4

You can use something like following $/ yor backscalsh file path /$. For example:

document root = $/home\test\new/$

Answer 5

The best way to do this particular task with find is to use its -delete action, which also avoids the need to even use a backslash in this case: https://www.gnu.org/software/findutils/manual/html_mono/find.html#Using-the-_002ddelete-action