How to delete matching directories recursively using Windows command?

Question

I've a folder C:\Users\user\Desktop\htmlreports\ and inside there are different folders but I want to delete only folders containing text say 192 in their names like

abc192     
xyz192     
pqr192xyz  

apart from these there are also other folders.

To delete only matching folders with text 192, I tried following -

rd /s /q C:\Users\user\Desktop\htmlreports\*192*

But it results into The filename, directory name, or volume label syntax is incorrect.

Please suggest what is correct regex which will help to achieve this.

NOTE This is for Windows environment

Answer 1

One line using cd /D folder && for /Directory /Recursive

cd/d "%userprofile%\Desktop\htmlreports" && for /D /R  %i in (*192*)do rmdir /s /q "%~i"

For /D /R Source

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1. Go to your folder:

cd /D "C:\Users\user\Desktop\htmlreports"

• Or, using one system variable:

cd /d "%userprofile%\Desktop\htmlreports"

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2. Use && operator

cd /D ... && for /D /R... do ...

Obs.: 1 Only if cd /D return 0, do the next for /D /R command will be executed...

Obs.: 2 You can add echo\ to test and check the output before deleting any files/folders:

cd/d "%userprofile%\Desktop\htmlreports" && for /D /R  %i in (*192*)do echo\rmdir /s /q "%~i"

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• Some further reading:

  [√] CD

  [√] For

  [√] For /f

  [√] For /r

  [√] For /d

  [√] Conditional Execution && ||

Answer 2

Try with cmd (rd will not work becuase it only can remove directories, use del as below):

del /s /q "C:\Users\user\Desktop\htmlreports\*192*"

Try with powershell:

dir "C:\Users\user\Desktop\htmlreports" -filter *192* | rm

Answer 3

The PowerShell option:

$Source = 'C:\Users\user\Desktop\htmlreports'

Get-ChildItem $Source -Directory -Recurse | Where Name -match '192' | Remove-Item -Recurse

Using aliases, we can shorten this to:

gci 'C:\Users\user\Desktop\htmlreports' -ad -r | ? Name -match '192' | ri -r