How to Remove Files and Directories in Linux Terminal

This article is going to show you that how to Remove Files and Directories in Linux. If you want to learn Remove Files and Directories in Linux Command Line then this article is best for you.

Linux is an operating system, like Windows OS, iOS, and Mac OS. Linux is one of the most popular operating system on the planet, Android is also powered by Linux OS(operating system). An operating system is software that manages all hardware resources associated with desktop or laptop. In simple words, the OS(operating system) manages communication between software and hardware.

Remove Files in Linux terminal

To remove a file from Linux system using the command line, use either the rm or unlink command.

The unlink command remove only a single file and the rm command remove multiple files at once.

• To delete a file, use the rm or unlink command with the file name that you want remove:

$ unlink filename

$ rm filename

If your file is write-protected then you will be prompted for confirmation to delete file, as shown below output. To remove the file simply type y and hit Enter Key. And if the file is not write-protected then it will be deleted without prompting for confirmation.

Output

rm: remove write-protected regular empty file 'filename'?

• To delete multiple files, use the rm command as shown below.

$ rm filename1 filename2 filename3

You can also use a wildcard(*) and Regular Expressions to select multiple files. for example, if you want to remove all .txt files in the your current directory then use the below command:

$ rm *.txt

• Use rm  command with the -i option to confirm before deleting each file:

$ rm -i filename(s)

• Use rm  command with the -f (force) option to remove files without prompting for confirmation even if the files are write-protected :

$ rm -f filename(s)

Remove Directories (Folders) in Linux terminal

Using rmdir and rm commands, you can remove Directories (Folders) in Linux.

rmdir is a command for deleting empty directories and rm  command can remove both empty and non-empty Directories (Folders).

• To remove an empty directory, use the rmdir or rm -d commands with the directory name:

$ rm -d dirname

$ rmdir dirname

• To remove a non-empty directory and all its content, use the rm command with the-r (recursive) option:

$ rm -r dirname

If the directory or a file within the directory is write-protected then you will be prompted to confirmation to delete the directory.

• Use rm with the -r (recursive) and -f (force) options to remove a non-empty directory and its all the files without prompting for confirmation to delete even if the files are write-protected:

$ rm -rf dirname

• To remove multiple directories at once:

$ rm -r dirname1 dirname2 dirname3

You can also use a wildcard(*) and Regular Expressions to select multiple directories to remove|delete.

That’s all

If you find any error and issue in the above steps , please use below comment box to report.