Linux Delete Folder

How do I delete folders under Linux operating systems?

You can the folder or directory, if they are empty using the following rmdir command.

Syntax

 
rmdir foldername
rmdir dirname
rmdir /path/to/folder
rmdir /path/to/directory

Example

In this example, delete the directory called /tmp/letters

 
rmdir /tmp/letters

Task: Remove DIRECTORY and Its Ancestors

The -p option can delete directory and its subdirectories:

 
rmdir -p dir1/dir2/dir3

Task: Delete All Files and Folders Including Subdirectories

Use the following syntax:

 
rm -rf /path/to/dir

For example, delete /home/vivek/docs and all its subdirectories including file, enter:

 
rm -rf /home/vivek/docs
ls -l /home/vivek/docs

GUI File Manager

The Nautilus file manager (GNOME desktop) provides a simple and integrated way to manage your files and applications. Just open it from Places menu and select folder and hit delete key.

Fig.01: Gnome File Browser

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{ 2 comments… read them below or add one }

1 Philippe Petrinko November 16, 2010 at 4:15 pm

Look out Vivek,

You have just invented 2 new commands : “mdir” and “m”
(instead of “mkdir” (3 times) and “rm” (2 times).

Philippe

2 Vivek Gite November 16, 2010 at 5:12 pm

Philippe,

There is a bug in WP plugin that displays bash script and commands; it eats ‘r’ character when enclosed in formatting tags as follows:

<pre lang="bash">rmdir foldername</pre>

Which renders it as

mdir foldername

To avoid this I need to add an extra newline to command:

This one renders correctly:

rmdir foldername

The plugin author stopped updating plugin and I’m not able to find out the bug on my own :( so some time we get this kind of weird problems. I’d like to thank you for pointing out this and while fixing this I found another bug because of your comment too. It was related to image display. I’ll buy you beer and pizza!