How to Remove Directory in Linux

How to Remove or Delete Directory in Linux

To delete a directory in Linux remove command to use is rm or rmdir. Both work fine but there is an important difference between how rm and rmdir remove a directory.

Caution

If you delete a directory from the GUI even in Linux, the folder is moved to the Trash bin. It is not really deleted right away.

If you remove a file using command line it skips the Trash bin – the directory gets deleted now not later!

Use ls /directory-path/your directory/ to be sure this is the actual directory you want the be deleted.

rm command

The rm command can be used to delete directories but also file and also everything if you are not careful.

There are many jokes and memes about the command “rm -rf /” but you should know what it does. It deletes everything, no questions asked -f and recursive in sub-directories -r in the root of your system / so it really deletes everything.

rm -r directory/

-r is for recursive – subfolders and files

rm -rf directory/

–rf is recursive and force – no questions – deletes all it can in the target directory you specify.

Example

[dragos@localhost ~]$ mkdir test-diy
[dragos@localhost ~]$ ls | grep diy
test-diy
[dragos@localhost ~]$ rm test-diy/
rm: cannot remove 'test-diy/': Is a directory
[dragos@localhost ~]$ rm -r test-diy/
[dragos@localhost ~]$ mkdir -p test-diy/test1/test2/test3
[dragos@localhost ~]$ tree | grep test
├── printtest
│   │   │   │   │   └── testfile1
│   │   │   │   └── testfile2
│   │   └── testfile3
│   └── test4
├── test
├── test1
├── test3
├── test-diy
│   └── test1
│       └── test2
│           └── test3
└── test.html
[dragos@localhost ~]$ rm -r test-diy/
[dragos@localhost ~]$ tree | grep test
├── printtest
│   │   │   │   │   └── testfile1
│   │   │   │   └── testfile2
│   │   └── testfile3
│   └── test4
├── test
├── test1
├── test3
└── test.html
[dragos@localhost ~]$
[dragos@localhost ~]$ rm -r rex.red/
[dragos@localhost ~]$ tree
.
├── 8
│   └── nine
├── file
├── filed
├── fileee
├── logfiles
├── printtest
├── test
├── test1
├── test3
└── test.html

2 directories, 9 files
[dragos@localhost ~]$
[dragos@localhost ~]$ rm * -r
[dragos@localhost ~]$ tree
.

0 directories, 0 files
[dragos@localhost ~]$
[dragos@localhost ~]$ mkdir -p test1/test2/test3/test4
[dragos@localhost ~]$ tree
.
└── test1
    └── test2
        └── test3
            └── test4

4 directories, 0 files
[dragos@localhost ~]$

rmdir command

It deletes a directory without having to specify extra parameters.

In a way it is easier and safer than rm with the -rf options.

rmdir /directory-path-to/your-directory

or

cd /directory-path-to
rmdir your-directory

or just

rmdir your-directory/

If the directory is not empty you will receive the error

[dragos@localhost ~]$ rmdir rex.red/
rmdir: failed to remove 'rex.red/': Directory not empty

To delete a non-empty directory use rm -r directory/ instead.

Example

[dragos@localhost ~]$ mkdir test-diy.rednumberone.com
[dragos@localhost ~]$ ls
8  file  filed  fileee  logfiles  printtest  rex.red  test  test1  test3  test-diy.rednumberone.com  test.html
[dragos@localhost ~]$ ls | grep diy
test-diy.rednumberone.com
[dragos@localhost ~]$ rmdir test-diy.rednumberone.com
[dragos@localhost ~]$ ls | grep diy
[dragos@localhost ~]$ ls
8  file  filed  fileee  logfiles  printtest  rex.red  test  test1  test3  test.html
[dragos@localhost ~]$

Remove directory with find

Find is a command line utility that can list files or directories but with the exec command and {} + option it executes the new command and passes it’s output directory path as an argument.

If you want to delete one or multiple directories it’s better to run the find command without exec to see if this is really what you want to remove in the first place.

find /home/dragos/test1 -type d -name '*-testlogs'

If you would like to find and delete all *-testlogs folders / directories you can use the bellow command.

find /home/dragos/test1 -type d -name '*-testlogs' -exec rm -r {} +