One of Linux’s basic file system administration tasks involves creating, modifying, and deleting different types of files and directories. Therefore, knowing some essential tools and concepts for file deletion is handy and can save you time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Related: 20 Basic Linux Commands for Beginners Explained with Examples<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n This article will show you several ways to delete files and directories in Linux. We will also provide brief information on the various flags and options you can use while deleting files and directories from your Linux<\/a> system.<\/p>\n\n\n\n To delete a file, you need to use the For example, to delete a single file named The The You can use the In addition, the If you need it, here’s the man page<\/a> for the The You can use the You are probably wondering what the difference between Above all, both commands are wrappers to the same fundamental function, an For more about the By adding the For example, to remove a directory named The To delete multiple directories (for example, myfiles1, myfiles2, and myfiles3), type rm -rf followed by the directory names or path<\/a> to directories, separated by a space, as follows:<\/p>\n\n\n Something important to note here is that the If a specified directory is not empty, the output will display an error, as shown below.<\/p>\n\n\n To remove a single empty directory, type Delete files Using the rm Command<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
rm<\/code> (remove) command and tell it what file or files you want it to delete. It has the following general syntax:<\/p>\n\n\nrm<\/span> [OPTIONS]<\/span> FILENAME<\/span><\/code><\/span>Code language:<\/span> CSS<\/span> (<\/span>css<\/span>)<\/span><\/small><\/pre>\n\n\nfile.jpg<\/code>, type the following in the command line:<\/p>\n\n\nrm<\/span> file<\/span>.jpg<\/span><\/code><\/span>Code language:<\/span> CSS<\/span> (<\/span>css<\/span>)<\/span><\/small><\/pre>\n\n\nrm<\/code> command displays a confirmation dialog for write-protected files. Otherwise, the command will directly delete the file. To make rm<\/code> always prompt before deleting a file, you can use -i<\/code> flag:<\/p>\n\n\nrm<\/span> -i<\/span> file<\/span>.jpg<\/span><\/code><\/span>Code language:<\/span> CSS<\/span> (<\/span>css<\/span>)<\/span><\/small><\/pre>\n\n\nrm<\/code> command in Linux can also delete more than one file. Bypassing multiple filenames separated by a space as arguments to rm<\/code>, you can delete multiple files:<\/p>\n\n\nrm<\/span> file1<\/span>.jpg<\/span> file2<\/span>.jpg<\/span> file3<\/span>.jpg<\/span><\/code><\/span>Code language:<\/span> CSS<\/span> (<\/span>css<\/span>)<\/span><\/small><\/pre>\n\n\n-f<\/code> (force) flag to delete write-protected files without asking for confirmation:<\/p>\n\n\nrm<\/span> -f<\/span> file<\/span>.jpg<\/span><\/code><\/span>Code language:<\/span> CSS<\/span> (<\/span>css<\/span>)<\/span><\/small><\/pre>\n\n\nrm<\/code> command also supports regular expressions. If you want to delete all three files (file1.jpg<\/code>, file2.jpg<\/code>, and file3.jpg<\/code>), you can use:<\/p>\n\n\nrm<\/span> file<\/span>*.jpg<\/span><\/code><\/span>Code language:<\/span> CSS<\/span> (<\/span>css<\/span>)<\/span><\/small><\/pre>\n\n\nrm<\/code> command.<\/p>\n\n\n\nDelete files Using the unlink Command<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
unlink<\/code> command also deletes a given file. This is another though not so popular, way of deleting a file in Linux.<\/p>\n\n\n\nunlink<\/code> command to permanently delete a single file named file.jpg<\/code> by typing the following:<\/p>\n\n\nunlink<\/span> file<\/span>.jpg<\/span><\/code><\/span>Code language:<\/span> CSS<\/span> (<\/span>css<\/span>)<\/span><\/small><\/pre>\n\n\nrm<\/code> and unlink<\/code> is.<\/p>\n\n\n\nunlink()<\/code> system call. But the unlink<\/code> command suffers from the following restrictions:<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n
--help<\/code> and --version<\/code>.<\/li>\n\n\n\nunlink<\/code> command in Linux, consult its manual page<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\nDelete Directories Using the rm Command<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
-r<\/code> (recursive) option to the rm<\/code> command in Linux, you can delete a directory and all its contents (files, subdirectories, etc.).<\/p>\n\n\n\nmyfiles<\/code>, type the following in the command line:<\/p>\n\n\nrm -r myfiles\/<\/code><\/span><\/pre>\n\n\nrm<\/code> command would ask you to validate the procedure if the specified directory or a file inside it is write-protected. To remove a directory without confirmation: <\/p>\n\n\nrm -rf myfiles\/<\/code><\/span><\/pre>\n\n\nrm -rf myfiles1\/ myfiles2\/ myfiles3\/<\/code><\/span><\/pre>\n\n\nDelete Directories Using the rmdir Command<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
rmdir<\/code> command is used when deleting empty directories in Linux. If you need to remove a non-empty directory, use the rm<\/code> command.<\/p>\n\n\n\nrmdir: failed to remove 'myfiles\/'<\/span>: Directory not empty<\/span><\/code><\/span>Code language:<\/span> PHP<\/span> (<\/span>php<\/span>)<\/span><\/small><\/pre>\n\n\nrmdir<\/code> followed by the directory name or path to the directory as follows:<\/p>\n\n\nrmdir myfiles\/<\/code><\/span><\/pre>\n\n\n