a script to remove empty directories

[Andreas Seidl <seidlcw at gmx dot net>]

Igor Pechtchanski wrote:
> On Wed, 18 Feb 2004, Andreas Seidl wrote:
> > Hmm, wouldn't the generic build script be the place to add functionality
> > to remove empty directories? Doing it by hand adds work, and even worse,
> > is a possible source for bugs, as a newer release might have actually
> > files in directories which were empty before, and if overlooked, they
> > could get removed.
>
>
> Andreas,
>
> Feel free to send a patch for this. ;-)
> 	Igor

I have written the following script, which is as good as I can do at the 
moment.

----- begin -----
#!/usr/bin/bash
# rmed -- remove empty directories recursively
# usage: rmed [DIR] where DIR is an optional argument, the directory
#   where to start examining.
# limitations:
#   - spaces in file or direcory names
#   - currently still prints instead of removing (remove # in line 19)
if [ -z "$1" ] ; then
  basedir="."
else
  basedir=$1
fi
cd $basedir
dirs=`\ls -F | grep '/' | sed sx/xx`
for dir in $dirs ; do
   #echo "      examining $dir"
  if [ -z "`\ls $dir`" ] ; then
    echo "empty: `pwd`/$dir"
    #rmdir $dir
  else
    rmed $dir
  fi
done
cd -
----- end -----