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Remove all things from directory

 
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# 1  
Old 03-10-2012
Remove all things from directory
Which command will be good to use when I want to remove all files and directories from the directory (i want to have empty derictory).
Sorry for my English Smilie
Greetings from Poland Smilie
# 2  
Old 03-10-2012
Just use the "rm" command carefully.

From with the directory that you wish to delete the contents of - eg

Code:
cd /home/my_dir_to_delete
rm -rf *

You'll have to make sure that you have the correct permissions to delete everything.

Go Carefully if you are new to this as mistakes can be hard to rectify - and always ensure that you have a backup even if you think you'll never need the data againSmilie
# 3  
Old 03-10-2012
rm -rf * is the most destructive command - Nuke_bomb of Unix. Be sure what your present directory is.

Cheers!
# 4  
Old 03-10-2012
Quote:
Originally Posted by gull04
Just use the "rm" command carefully.

From with the directory that you wish to delete the contents of - eg

Code:
cd /home/my_dir_to_delete
rm -rf *

You'll have to make sure that you have the correct permissions to delete everything.

Go Carefully if you are new to this as mistakes can be hard to rectify - and always ensure that you have a backup even if you think you'll never need the data againSmilie
Good advice and a case in point, suppose the first of the two commands (the cd command) fails and you are either too quick with the second command or you are executing the two together (from the command line or from a script) then you end up deleting the current directory and everything underneath Smilie

So use a long pause after the first command and type pwd and ls -al etcetera to verify that you are in the proper directory and have proper rights.
Last edited by Scrutinizer; 03-10-2012 at 03:56 PM..
 
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