delete-empty-folders

#!/usr/bin/env bash
# Recursively find all empty subfolders in a given directory
# and prompt the user whether to delete every individual empty folder,
# and act accordingly.
# If no directory is given, use the current current working directory.
# Ignore everything inside .git dirs.
#
# Usage:
#
#   delete-empty-folders [<ROOT-DIR>]
#
# Examples:
#
#   delete-empty-folders              # Use the CWD as root dir
#   delete-empty-folders ~/Downloads  # Use given directory as root dir
#
# author: andreasl

root_folder="${1:-${PWD}}"

# let `find` do the emptiness test and the .git filtering. Note that a parent only holding
# empty folders is not itself empty at scan time and is therefore never offered, not even
# after its children have been deleted - rerun the script to collapse such a nest one level
# at a time.
# The folder list arrives on file descriptor 3, so that stdin stays free for the confirmation
# prompt.
while IFS= read -r -d '' dir <&3; do
    echo "$dir"
    # -r raw, i.e. don't mangle backslashes; -e newline after input is read;
    # -n1 capture 1 character, no ENTER needed
    read -r -e -n1 -p "Delete [y/n]?: " do_delete
    [ "$do_delete" == "y" ] && rmdir "$dir"
done 3< <(find "$root_folder" -type d -empty -not -path '*/.git/*' -print0)