remove a nonempty directory Post: 26934

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Top Forums UNIX for Dummies Questions & Answers remove a nonempty directory Post 26934 by janr on Monday 26th of August 2002 11:05:32 AM

08-26-2002

Registered User

you need rm

please rean the man pages of rm carefully before this
http://docs.sun.com/?q=rm&p=/doc/806...9vek5f3&a=view

you can use rm -R for removing files AND directory recursively

-r
Recursively remove directories and subdirectories in the argument list. The directory will be emptied of files and removed. The user is normally prompted for removal of any write-protected files which the directory contains. The write-protected files are removed without prompting, however, if the -f option is used, or if the standard input is not a terminal and the -i option is not used.

Symbolic links that are encountered with this option will not be traversed.

If the removal of a non-empty, write-protected directory is attempted, the utility will always fail (even if the -f option is used), resulting in an error message.

-R
Same as -r option.

janr

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LEARN ABOUT REDHAT

rmdir

RMDIR(1)								FSF								  RMDIR(1)

NAME

       rmdir - remove empty directories

SYNOPSIS

       rmdir [OPTION]... DIRECTORY...

DESCRIPTION

       Remove the DIRECTORY(ies), if they are empty.

       --ignore-fail-on-non-empty

	      ignore each failure that is solely because a directory is non-empty

       -p, --parents
	      remove  DIRECTORY, then try to remove each directory component of that path name.  E.g., `rmdir -p a/b/c' is similar to `rmdir a/b/c
	      a/b a'.

       -v, --verbose
	      output a diagnostic for every directory processed

       --help display this help and exit

       --version
	      output version information and exit

AUTHOR

       Written by David MacKenzie.

REPORTING BUGS

       Report bugs to <bug-coreutils@gnu.org>.

COPYRIGHT

       Copyright (C) 2002 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
       This is free software; see the source for copying conditions.  There is NO warranty; not even for MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICU-
       LAR PURPOSE.

SEE ALSO

       The  full  documentation  for rmdir is maintained as a Texinfo manual.  If the info and rmdir programs are properly installed at your site,
       the command

	      info rmdir

       should give you access to the complete manual.

rmdir (coreutils) 4.5.3 					   February 2003							  RMDIR(1)