Linux: How to Remove Directories (Folders)

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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 or rm -d followed by the directory name:
rm -d dirname

rmdir dirname
  • To remove non-empty directories and all the files within them, use the rm command with the -r (recursive) option:
rm -r dirname

If 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
  • To remove multiple directories at once, use the rm -r command followed by the directory names separated by space.
rm -r dirname1 dirname2 dirname3

Same as with files you can also use a wildcard ( * ) and regular expansions to match multiple directories.