Remove vim and emacs backup files. Endind with hash or tilde ~

Written by Guillermo Garron
Date: 2013-05-18 22:12:13 00:00

I work with Emacs and Vim a lot, as I do not want to use other text editors. I use them both on Mac or Linux. The only problem I find is that I end up with lots of backup files. Those files that end with a tilde (~) or start and end with a hash (#), also called pound symbol or number sign.

Anyway you call it, those files with the hash or tilde symbols, are usually backup files left away by Vim or Emacs.

So, how to remove them?

find ./ -name "#*#" | xargs rm

And

find ./ -name '*~' | xargs rm

The part of the command before the pipe (

) will find all those files, and the part behind the pipe symbol, will delete them. You can run just the first part in order to print those files in the screen.