Max number of entries in robots.txt

How many entries will the Google url console read

[taps]

I'm just considering to remove really many files from google via url console - this will be around 2.700.

Does anyone here know how many lines the Google url console will handle? Should I feed the console with all entries at once or in smaller pieces?

[macdave]

URL Console will read up to 50 lines in robots.txt. Any more and you'll get an error message.

Remember that

Disallow:

lines in robots.txt have an implied trailing wildcard, so you can remove entire directories (or similarly-named files within a directory) with one line rather than including a separate line for each file.

For example,

Disallow: /foo

would cause Google to remove all of the following URLs from your site: /foo/, /foo/bar.html, /foo.html, /foobar.php, /foo/bar/bap/bam.asp, etc.

[taps]

thanks, that really helps. Unfortunately the pages I want to remove all have completely different names. So there's a little work to be done.

Hopefully Google will start removing most of those pages automatically. I set 301 redirections on Feb, 5th.

[macdave]

Also, while the URL Console only reads up to 50 lines at a time, it doesn't prevent you from making multiple submissions. So you can submit your 50-line robots.txt, then paste in a different 50 lines and submit it again immediately, ad nauseam.

[taps]

macdave: That's what I'm going to do. I think a little php will help me to generate the files necessary.

Thanks again

[taps]

I just did some trial and error. 100 entries seem to be Google's limit.

[g1smd]

It can take up to 5 days for the URLs to actually disappear from the index.

[taps]

This time serps needed around six hours to disappear. Not bad. I think it will take some more time until I see some real results, i.e. better rankings.

It is a tough job to hunt down duplicate content. Especially if you have quadruple content as I do.