How to remove directory linux

Remove Directory in Linux: How to Delete Files and Folders

Learning how to use the Linux command line is essential for all Linux users and system administrators. Simple maintenance tasks like creating a file, navigating to a folder, or moving a file can all be done through it.

Since Linux is a popular operating system for virtual server hosting, understanding fundamental Linux commands is crucial for server management.

This article will show you how to remove files and directories using the Linux command line.

How to Remove a Directory in Linux

To permanently remove a directory in Linux, use either rmdir or rm command:

Before you remove a directory, you need to know the name of it. To discover files and directories, use the ls command, and to know the current directory you are in, use the pwd command.

The options you use together with these commands are also important to determine how they work. Here’s a quick recap of rm command options:

If you want to use these commands for VPS management, don’t forget to connect to the server using an SSH client beforehand. Then, execute the commands from there.

How to Remove an Empty Directory (rmdir Command)

In the Linux environment, files and directories will be permanently deleted as there’s no recycle bin or trash folder where you can retrieve them. If you delete a file or directory in Linux by mistake, the only way to recover it is from a backup.

Using the rmdir command prevents such unwanted actions as it only works for empty directories. It will return the following error message if the directory contains files:

rmdir: failed to remove ‘Directory’: Directory not empty

The syntax for the rmdir command is as follows:

rmdir [option] DirectoryName

If you don’t want to use any command line option, remove it from the syntax. Remember that the command line is case-sensitive. Therefore, if the folder name contains uppercase letters, type it accordingly.

For example, here’s a command for deleting the Simple-Directory folder:

The rmdir command also works for multiple empty directories. Add the directories in the command as additional arguments to delete multiple directories in Linux.

rmdir Directory_1 Directory_2 Directory_3

Now let’s see options you can use with the rmdir command. The first one is -p, which works for deleting a subdirectory and its parent directory. For example, if your directory path is /Directory/SubDirectory, use the following command:

This command will delete the SubDirectory folder in the Directory path first. Then, if the Directory folder is empty after the SubDirectory was removed, the folder will also get deleted.

The next option is verbose, represented with -v in the command line. This option will print a text as a confirmation that the specified directory has been deleted. Here’s an example of this command:

The output message will be like this:

rmdir: removing directory, ‘Simple-Directory’

How to Remove a Non-Empty Directory (rm Command)

Now let’s see how to remove non-empty directories using the rm command. This command is originally used to remove files, but we can use it to remove directories using options like -r, -rf, and -d. The basic syntax for the rm command is as follows:

rm [option] FileOrFolderName

Use a recursive option, represented by -r, to remove the directory and its content. The following command shows how to delete Simple-Directory and its content:

If the directory is write-protected, you will be prompted to confirm before proceeding with the directory removal. To delete a directory without being prompted, use the -rf option.

The rm command also works for removing empty directories in Linux. However, unlike the rmdir command, you have to use the -d option.

Just as with the rmdir command, you can use the rm command to remove multiple directories. Add directory names as new arguments in the command line:

How to Delete a File With the rm Command

You may want to use the rm command to manually remove files instead of deleting a non-empty folder straight away. This method is safer as it prevents removing important files accidentally.

To delete a single file in the current working directory, use the rm command followed by the file name:

To delete multiple files in the directory, write all the file names you want to delete in the command:

rm file1.txt file2.txt file3.txt

All the commands above work if you are in the same directory as the specified files. However, you can put the file path into the command line argument to delete a file that’s not in your current working directory.

Since the files will be permanently removed, you can add the -i option in the command to make the terminal prompt you to confirm every file deletion. This way, you prevent unpleasant mistakes from happening.

Type Y and press Enter if you want to delete the file, or type N and press Enter if you don’t.

Use -I instead to get prompted only once before deleting more than three files. While this is less safe than the -i option, it still gives extra protection to avoid deleting important files.

However, the system will prompt you anyway before removing files if they’re write-protected. If you don’t want to get prompted when deleting such files, use the -f option.

The commands we’ve discussed so far will delete specific files. However, using wildcards, you can delete multiple files with a single command. There are two types of wildcards – the asterisk (*) and the question mark (?).

The asterisk represents multiple unknown characters, and one of the most common use examples is deleting files with a certain extension. The command below will delete all .txt files in the current working directory:

You can also use the asterisk to delete all files beginning with a specific letter.

In the example above, the asterisk represents all unknown characters that come after the letter a. The command will delete all files beginning with a regardless of their extensions, such as amazon.txt, alligator.png, and aaron.zip.

The question mark wildcard, on the other hand, represents a single character. In conjunction with the asterisk wildcard, you can use it to delete files with a single character extension, such as .S, .O, and .C.

Warning! Be careful when using wildcards, as you may end up deleting important files. First, check all the files in the directory using the ls command. Make sure that there are no important data or system files before using the wildcard command.

Conclusion

Deleting directories and files through the command line in Linux requires understanding the correct use of the rm and rmdir commands. To put it simply, the rm command works for files and non-empty directories, while the rmdir only works for empty folders.

Remember that there is no recycle bin or trash folder in Linux. Once you remove files and directories using the command line, they will be permanently deleted. Therefore, use these commands with caution or create a backup before deleting the files and folders on your VPS.

If you have additional questions, feel free to leave us a comment.

How To Delete a Directory in Linux

There are a few ways you can delete a directory on Linux and UNIX systems. If you are using a desktop environment, you can probably right click on it in your file manager and select the appropriate option. If you are using the command line, you can use either the rm command, or the rmdir command.

Delete a Directory Using rmdir

The safest way to delete a directory is with rmdir because it will not allow you to delete a directory that has files or other directories in it.

Obviously, you will need to remove or relocate the directory’s contents before rmdir will allow you to delete it. Use the rm command to delete any files inside of it.

You may run into the situation where it appears empty. This is because it has a hidden file. Files beginning with . are not displayed by default. The -a and -A options will show hidden files.

The difference between -A and -a is -a shows the two special directory entries . and ... The former is the directory you are currently in, while the latter is the parent directory.

Delete a Directory Using rm

The f instructs find to remove everything without prompting. It will override any missing write permissions as well. The r option means recursively remove directories. That is a fancy way of saying remove the directory and everything in it.

A safer way is to use the i option. Adding i instructs rm to prompt you before deleting each file or directory.

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How to Remove Files and Directories [Linux Delete Directory]

Are you looking to delete or remove Linux directory/Delete Linux file? This blog post will help you to do that and achieve your goals in a very minimal time duration to delete files or delete Linux directory.

List of content you will read in this article:

The rm stands for remove, so the rm command is used to delete files and directory entities from a file system like UNIX, such as folders, directories, symbolic connections, etc. To be more specific, rm eliminates references to objects from the filesystem where such objects may have several references, such as a file with two names. It does not delete folders by chance.

This Linux command usually operates quietly, and you should take caution when using it because if you erase files, you won’t be able to restore the contents of certain folders. So in this tutorial, we will explain everything about how to delete Linux directory and how to delete files in Linux/remove Linux directory and remove files in Linux.

Use of RM Command/How to Delete File and Directory in Linux [Linux Delete Directory/Linux Remove Directory]

The rm command has the following syntax:

rm [OPTIONS]. FILE.

when we use rm command with the file name as an argument to erase a single file, below is the syntax listed:

You’ll get an «Operation not allowed» error if you don’t have write permissions on the parent directory. The file will be deleted without warning if it is not written safely. If the instruction succeeds, it produces no output and returns empty. The command will ask for clarification before deleting write-protected files, as seen below:

rm: remove write-protected regular empty file ‘file’?

Type y and press Enter to delete the file.

It will remove the ‘file1’ file.

How to Delete Multiple files?

rm command helps you to remove multiple files at the same time. To do so, use the following syntax to transfer the filenames as arguments, separated by a space:

rm file1 file2 file3

It is usually a good idea to list the files with the ls command before executing the rm command by using regular expressions to see which files can be removed.

How to Delete Linux Directories?

Linux commands (rm/rmdir) come with various options that we will be discussing in this article.

While using this command, you must understand that running rm/rmdir commands will not move the files and directories to the trash. They will be immediately removed from your system leaving no option to recover them. If you delete the files and directories accidentally then you cannot restore them. So make sure before permanently deleting the files, you create some backup.

Let’s understand the use of rm/rmdir commands along with various options available in the Linux operating system.

How to Remove Linux files using rm

1. One of the simple tasks of deleting a file is from the current working directory. You only need to run the rm command along with the file name that you want to delete. You can consider the below example.

2. If the desired file that you want to delete is not present in the current working directory, then you need to enter the complete path to that file name as shown below.

3. Not only this, you can use the rm command for deleting multiple files that you can specify after the rm command with a space between each file name as shown below.

rm file_name_2.txt file_name_3.txt

4. If you want to delete a bunch of files that are having the same extension for example files ending with “.pdf”. You can run the below rm command along with the extension. This command will help in deleting all the pdf files in the current working directory.

5. This command will delete all the files that is having the pdf extension. But if you enter the wildcard character like “?”, it will delete the files that is having a single character extension.

6. If a specific file is having write-protected permissions, then you will be asked for confirmation for deleting that file permanently. If you want to proceed, you can press “y” and hit enter accordingly.

For reducing the risk of using the rm command directly to deleting the file permanently, it is better that you use the “-i” option along with the rm command to ask you to confirm the deletion.

7. If you want to delete a file forcefully then you can use the “-f” option along with the rm command even the specific file has the write-protected permission for that file.

How to Removing directories in Linux using rm

2. If you want to delete multiple directories then you can specify different directories after the rm command separated by spaces as shown below.

3. If you are removing a directory that is not empty, you can use the “-r” option along with the rm command for the recursive operation. It will remove the directories along with the files within it.

4. If the directory is having write-protected permission then you will be prompted for permission to delete that directory. For deleting directories that are not empty along with suppressing the prompt, you can use the following command with “-r” and “-f” options.

5. For running the above command, you have to be careful as it will delete file in Linux without any prompt and cannot be recovered. So make sure you have the proper understanding of the directory structure. For solving this problem, you can use the tree command.

But first, you need to install the package for using the tree command on your Unix or Linux distribution.

sudo apt-get install tree

6. If you run the «tree» command, you will get a tree diagram of the directory structure and the files stored within it.

Removing directory Linux using rmdir

For deleting the directory, you can also use the rmdir command. But the main difference between using rm and rmdir commands is that the rmdir command will help in deleting those directories that are empty. It cannot be used for deleting files.

rmdir directory1 directory2 directory3

If you want to delete the directory along with its parent directory, then you can use the “-p” option with the rmdir command. It is possible as the rmdir command will start from the target directory and then move to the parent directory. The target directory now will be empty so it can be deleted by the rmdir command. The process will keep on repeating till the path is provided to the rmdir command.

Conclusion

We’ve seen how we can delete files and directories on Linux operating system using the rm or rmdir commands.

When deleting sensitive data or folders, use strict caution because it cannot be restored if a file is destroyed. We have also seen how to use rm functions with different opinions commands available in the Linux operating system. The regular expression can also be used with the rm command in Linux.

How to Delete a Directory in Linux

Earlier in one of the tutorials, we have explained how to create directory in Linux. Now let’s check how to delete a directory in Linux which is either empty or having subdirectories with files. This is especially when you need to free up some space on your system in order to save more files or install additional packages.

There are many ways in which you can remove a directory in Linux. You can make use of the file manager if you are using a GUI system such as GNOME, MATE or KDE Plasma, or you can do it over the terminal.

When working with a GUI system deleting a directory takes it to the crash can, the equivalent of recycle bin in Windows from where it can be restored. However, the scenario is different when working on a command line on a minimal system because once a directory is deleted, it is permanently removed and cannot be recovered.

This tutorial will take you through various ways in which you can delete a directory in Linux.

Delete a directory using rmdir command

The rmdir command, short for’remove directory’, is a command-line tool that is used to delete empty directories. The operation will be successful if and only if the directory is empty. The syntax for deleting a directory is as follows:

For instance, to remove an empty directory called ‘mydirectory’, run the command:

If the directory is not empty, an error will be displayed on the screen as shown:

The error is a clear indication that the directory contains either files or folders or both.

Remove a directory using rm command

Short for remove, the rm command is used for deleting both empty and non-empty directories.

Additionally, you can delete multiple directories at a go in a single command as shown in the command below. The command deletes all the directories and their subdirectories without prompting for deletion.

When you hit y for ‘Yes’, the command will remove all the subfolders and files in the directory without prompting any further.

Using find command

Find command is a command-line tool that helps users search for files as well as directories based on specific search criteria/pattern or expression. Additionally, the command can be used to search for directories and delete them based on the specified search criteria.

For example, to delete a directory called ‘mydirectory’ in the current directory, run the command below.

Let’s break down the parameters in the command

Let’s take another example:

Remove an empty directory

If you wish to remove all empty directories use the following command:

Again, let’s break this down

If you have lots of empty directories then use a shell script to delete empty directory.

Conclusion

In this tutorial, we looked at how to delete a directory in Linux using the rm, rmdir and find commands. We hope you can comfortably delete a directory in Linux whether it contains files and other subdirectories, or simply if it is empty. Give it a try and get back to us with your feedback.

How to Remove a Directory in Linux

Our second quick and short tutorial. Before, we showed you how to rename a file in Linux. Now we’re going to show you how to remove a directory in Linux.

Like most other basic commands, these will work on most Linux-based distros, including CentOS and Ubuntu. The most common usage is on cloud servers.

Generally, you’ll use the “rm” command to remove files and directories in Linux. But, there are different use cases and different commands, so we’ll go through them below.

Remove an empty directory

To remove an empty directory (folder), you can use the “rmdir” command. The syntax is:

So if you had an empty directory named “test”, you can remove it with:

But, if the directory had files in it, you would not be able to remove it with “rmdir”. If you tried removing a directory with files, you would get an error like this:

Instead, you should use a different command.

Remove a directory with files and subdirectories (non-empty directory)

Here’s where we would use the “rm” command. You can also remove empty directories with the “rm” command, so you can always use that one.

So, if we had a directory with subdirectories and files in it, we would use this syntax:

We used the option “-r” to recursively delete all subdirectories (subfolders) and files in the parent directory.

If you don’t use the “-r” option, you will only delete a single file. With our command, we deleted all contents (files and directories) within the parent directory.

Remove a single file

To remove a single file, you can use the “rm” command with no additional options:

And that’s it. Those were the most common commands for removing a directory in Linux.

When using the “rm” command, you should not always use the “-f” (force) option. By using that option, you won’t get any warnings or prompts when removing something. And it’s always better to have a warning or a prompt before removing something, just to make sure you’re doing the right thing.

If you get a “permission denied” (or similar) error

If you get a “permission denied” error or any other similar error, then you are probably using a non-root user. You should either use the root user or use sudo to run the commands. So just append “sudo” to each command and enter your sudo password when prompt: