This command works by rsyncing the target directory (containing the files you want to delete) with an empty directory. The '--delete' switch instructs rsync to remove files that are not present in the source directory. Since there are no files there, all the files will be deleted.

I'm not clear on why it's faster than 'find -delete', but it is.

Benchmarks here: https://web.archive.org/web/20130929001850/http://linuxnote.net/jianingy/en/linux/a-fast-way-to-remove-huge-number-of-files.html

Looks best in an 80x24 256-color terminal emulator.

A more efficient way, with reversed order to put the focus in the big ones.

Ever needed to test firewalls but didn't have netcat, telnet or FTP?

Enter /dev/tcp, your new best friend. /dev/tcp/(hostname)/(port) is a virtual device that bash can use to talk to TCP ports

First, exec sets up a redirect for /dev/tcp/$server/$host to file descriptor 5.

Then, as per some excellent feedback from @flatcap, we launch a redirect from file descriptor 5 to STDOUT (implied by

Finally, when the second cat dies (the connection is closed), we clean up the file descriptor with 'exec 5>&-'.

This one-liner opens a connection on a port to a server and lets you read and write to it from the terminal.

Example test

replace time.nist.gov with 127.0.0.1

replace 13 with 22

You should see a response from your SSH server:

SSH-2.0-OpenSSH_6.6.1p1 Ubuntu-2ubuntu2

Typing TEST should net you a Protocol Mismatch:

TEST

Protocol mismatch.

It can be used for FTP, HTTP, NTP, or netcat listening on a port (makes for a simple chat client!)

Replace /tcp/ with /udp/ to use UDP instead.