This Lab will show you how to use the rm
, unlink
, and rmdir
commands to remove files and directories in Linux.
How to Remove Files
To remove (or delete) a file in Linux from the command line, use either the rm
(remove) or unlink
command.
The unlink
command allows you to remove only a single file, while with rm
, you can remove multiple files at once.
Be extra careful when removing files or directories, because once the file is deleted it cannot be easily recovered.
- To delete a single file, use the
rm
orunlink
command followed by the file name:unlink filename
Copyrm filename
CopyIf the file is write-protected, you will be prompted for confirmation, as shown below. To remove the file typey
, and hitEnter
. Otherwise, if the file is not write-protected, it will be deleted without prompting.rm: remove write-protected regular empty file 'filename'?
Copy - To delete multiple files at once, use the
rm
command followed by the file names separated by space.rm filename1 filename2 filename3
CopyYou can also use a wildcard (*
) and regular expansions to match multiple files. For example, to remove all.pdf
files in the current directory, use the following command:rm *.pdf
CopyWhen using regular expansions, first list the files with thels
command so that you can see what files will be deleted before running therm
command. - Use the
rm
with the-i
option to confirm each file before deleting it:rm -i filename(s)
Copy - To remove files without prompting, even if the files are write-protected, pass the
-f
(force) option to therm
command:rm -f filename(s)
Copy - You can also combine
rm
options. For example, to remove all.txt
files in the current directory without a prompt in verbose mode, use the following command:rm -fv *.txt
Copy
How to Remove Directories (Folders)
In Linux, you can remove/delete directories with the rmdir
and rm
.
rmdir
is a command-line utility for deleting empty directories, while with rm
you can remove directories and their contents recursively.
- To remove an empty directory, use either
rmdir
orrm -d
followed by the directory name:rm -d dirname
Copyrmdir dirname
Copy - To remove non-empty directories and all the files within them, use the
rm
command with the-r
(recursive) option:rm -r dirname
CopyIf a directory or a file within the directory is write-protected, you will be prompted to confirm the deletion.
- To remove non-empty directories and all the files without being prompted, use
rm
with the-r
(recursive) and-f
options:rm -rf dirname
Copy - To remove multiple directories at once, use the
rm -r
command followed by the directory names separated by space.rm -r dirname1 dirname2 dirname3
CopySame as with files, you can also use a wildcard (*
) and regular expansions to match multiple directories.
By now you should have a good understanding of how to use the Linux rm
, rmdir
and unlink
commands and you should be able to safely remove files and directories from the command line.
![](https://i0.wp.com/myfuturehub.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/MFH_DevOps-2.png?resize=112%2C158&ssl=1)