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I would like to delete all files on a Windows server matching this wildcard:

E:\Cache\*\*\*_ROOT\a*_SYMBOL\weekly*

In linux, I could just put an rm -rf in front of it and it would work. If I try something similar in Windows, it just gives me:

The filename, directory name, or volume label syntax is incorrect.

Any ideas about what I can do?

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  • 2
    I believe a batch file with FOR loops will be needed, not any one single command will work. I needed to write one to delete every subdirectory in a directory. You batch file would be similar but you would need to test for the name of the directories and travel down each subdirectory. For a while I did look for a third party RD command to accept wild cards but if we quicker for me to write my own. However, my situation was simple.
    – Scott McClenning
    Oct 5, 2010 at 18:32

3 Answers 3

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Use Power Shell, which comes built-in in Win7

for example, rm -rf would translate to:

Remove-Item E:\Cache\*\*\*_ROOT\a*_SYMBOL\weekly* -force
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  • It's Windows 2008 Server, but that includes PowerShell. Isn't that handy? Thanks a lot!
    – Erick Robertson
    Oct 7, 2010 at 11:26
  • What if I want to delete all folders with a certain name anywhere in the sub-tree, but starting at a certain root folder. E.g. delete all folders named TestResult within C:\Projects` and all subdirectories? Found the answer - example 4 of the Remove-Item` command explains it: get-childitem C:\Projects\* -include TestResults -recurse | remove-item
    – Pat
    Oct 11, 2010 at 21:00
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Share the folder. Connect to the share with linux. Use ls to generate a list of files. Open up your favorite text editor and edit the list. Add del to the front of each line. Replace all / with \ and change the path from /cache to E:\ . Add quotes around each path to protect against the ^ in the filename and change all % into %%. Copy the contents into a .bat file and execute.

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Cygwin is very useful for things like this, if you don't have a linux machine to share to. After you install it, you'll be able to execute the linux command directly on your windows folders.

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