# Cleaning up /var



## Graaf_van_Vlaanderen (Nov 13, 2010)

I was trying to clean up all files in:


```
/var/db/freebsd-update/files
```

But received the following error:


```
Helena# rm *
/bin/rm: Argument list too long
```

Could this be the reason? 


```
Helena# ls | wc -l
  140680
```

The high number of files?


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## graudeejs (Nov 13, 2010)

Yes, it is the reason.

cd to dir and
`$ ls | xargs rm -fR`


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## DutchDaemon (Nov 13, 2010)

You could probaly also have done [cmd=]rm -rf /var/db/freebsd-update/files && mkdir /var/db/freebsd-update/files[/cmd] instead of piping 140680 file names to xargs and rm


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