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I'm trying to write a bash script that delete all empty directories as well as any directory that only container the .DS_Store file that Mac generates. I can do the former pretty easily with find -depth -type d -empty but I can't figure how to find directories that only contain .DS_Store.

Is there an easy way of doing this without writing my own recursive search function?

POSIX sh + find

Here's a solution that relies only on POSIX find and POSIX sh. List all directories, then filter those that only contain an entry called .DS_Store.

find -type d -exec sh -c '

    cd "$0" &&

    for x in * .[!.]* ..?*; do

      if [ "$x" = ".DS_Store" ]; then continue; fi;

      if [ -e "$x" ] || [ -L "$x" ]; then exit 1; fi;

    done' {} ; -print

• I use find to enumerate all directories recursively.


• On each directory, I call sh to run some shell code.


• The for loop enumerates all the files in the directory.


• The body of the loop skips .DS_Store.


• Each of the three patterns is left unchanged if it doesn't match any file. [ -e "$x" ] || [ -L "$x" ] captures any file including broken symbolic links; the only way they don't match is if a pattern was left unchanged.


• Therefore the shell snippet runs exit 1 if there is a file other than .DS_Store, and returns 0 for success otherwise.


• Change -print to -exec … if you want to do something other than printing the names.

Zsh

Here's a solution in zsh. Change echo to whatever command you want to run.

setopt extended_glob

echo **/*(/DNe''a=($REPLY/^.DS_Store(DNY1)); ((!#a))'')

• 
  **/* enumerates all files recursively.


• With the glob qualifier /, **/*(/) enumerates all directories recursively.


• The glob qualifier N ensures that you get an empty list if there are no matches (by default zsh signals an error).


• The glob qualifier D causes dot files to be included.


• The glob qualifier e''CODE'' runs CODE on each matching file name and limits the matches to those for which CODE succeeds. CODE can use the variable $REPLY to refer to the file name.


• 
  ^.DS_Store matches files that are not called .DS_Store.


• Thus the CODE limits the matches to those for which the number of files other than .DS_Store is zero.


• The glob qualifier Y1 limits the matches to one (it's only an efficiency improvement).

Python

Here's a solution in Python (it works in both 2 and 3). The structure is rather clearer despite this being compressed into a one-liner.

python -c 'import os; print("n".join([path for path, dirs, files in os.walk(".") if dirs ==  and files in (, [".DS_Store"])]))'

• 
  os.walk returns a list of directories recursively under its argument. For each directory, it produces a triple containing path (the path to the directory), dirs (the list of subdirectories) and files (the list of files in the directory that aren't themselves directories).


• 
  [… for … in os.walk(…) if …] filters the result of os.walk.


• The if clause keeps an element only if it has no subdirectories and no files other than .DS_Store.


• The script prints the accepted elements, joined with a newline in between and with a final newline.

Easy solution:
first, delete all such files:

find <path> -type f -name "*.DS_Store" -delete

then delete empty directories.

Update based on comment:
In order to delete only directories that have only such files, you will need something like (caution: not tested at all, I will not be surprised if it needs to be a bit more involved):

find <path> -type d | while read dir; do

    if ! ls --ignore=*.DS_Store $dir; then

        rm -rf $dir

    fi

done

Explanation of complicated part:

ls --ignore=*.DS_Store $dir

should print files in $dir that do not end in .DS_Store. If there are none, the expression is False and the if-block is executed.