slackware-current/slackbook/html/file-commands-deletion.html
Patrick J Volkerding 5a12e7c134 Slackware 13.0
Wed Aug 26 10:00:38 CDT 2009
Slackware 13.0 x86_64 is released as stable!  Thanks to everyone who
helped make this release possible -- see the RELEASE_NOTES for the
credits.  The ISOs are off to the replicator.  This time it will be a
6 CD-ROM 32-bit set and a dual-sided 32-bit/64-bit x86/x86_64 DVD.
We're taking pre-orders now at store.slackware.com.  Please consider
picking up a copy to help support the project.  Once again, thanks to
the entire Slackware community for all the help testing and fixing
things and offering suggestions during this development cycle.
As always, have fun and enjoy!  -P.
2018-05-31 22:41:17 +02:00

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<div class="SECT1">
<h1 class="SECT1"><a id="FILE-COMMANDS-DELETION" name="FILE-COMMANDS-DELETION">10.6
Deletion: <tt class="COMMAND">rm</tt> and <tt class="COMMAND">rmdir</tt></a></h1>
<div class="SECT2">
<h2 class="SECT2"><a id="AEN3733" name="AEN3733">10.6.1 <tt
class="COMMAND">rm</tt></a></h2>
<p><tt class="COMMAND">rm</tt>(1) removes files and directory trees. DOS users will
notice the similarity to both the <tt class="COMMAND">del</tt> and <tt
class="COMMAND">deltree</tt> commands. <tt class="COMMAND">rm</tt> can be very dangerous
if you do not watch yourself. While it is sometimes possible to retrieve a recently
deleted file, it can be complicated (and potentially costly) and is beyond the scope of
this book.</p>
<p>To remove a single file, specify its name when you run rm:</p>
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<pre class="SCREEN">
<samp class="PROMPT">%</samp> <kbd class="USERINPUT">rm file1</kbd>
</pre>
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</table>
<p>If the file has write permissions removed, you may get a permission denied error
message. To force removal of the file no matter what, pass the <tt
class="COMMAND">-f</tt> option, like this:</p>
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<pre class="SCREEN">
<samp class="PROMPT">%</samp> <kbd class="USERINPUT">rm -f file1</kbd>
</pre>
</td>
</tr>
</table>
<p>To remove an entire directory, you use the <var class="OPTION">-r</var> and <var
class="OPTION">-f</var> options together. This is a good example of how to delete the
entire contents of your hard drive. You really don't want to do this. But here's the
command anyway:</p>
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<pre class="SCREEN">
<samp class="PROMPT">#</samp> <kbd class="USERINPUT">rm -rf /</kbd>
</pre>
</td>
</tr>
</table>
<p>Be very careful with <tt class="COMMAND">rm</tt>; you can shoot yourself in the foot.
There are several command line options, which are discussed in detail in the online
manual page.</p>
</div>
<div class="SECT2">
<h2 class="SECT2"><a id="AEN3764" name="AEN3764">10.6.2 <tt
class="COMMAND">rmdir</tt></a></h2>
<p><tt class="COMMAND">rmdir</tt>(1) removes directories from the filesystem. The
directory must be empty before it can be removed. The syntax is simply:</p>
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<pre class="SCREEN">
<samp class="PROMPT">%</samp> <kbd class="USERINPUT">rmdir &lt;<var
class="REPLACEABLE">directory</var>&gt;</kbd>
</pre>
</td>
</tr>
</table>
<p>This example will remove the <tt class="FILENAME">hejaz</tt> subdirectory in the
current working directory:</p>
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<pre class="SCREEN">
<samp class="PROMPT">%</samp> <kbd class="USERINPUT">rmdir hejaz</kbd>
</pre>
</td>
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</table>
<p>If that directory does not exist, <tt class="COMMAND">rmdir</tt> will tell you. You
can also specify a full path to a directory to remove, as this example shows:</p>
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<samp class="PROMPT">%</samp> <kbd class="USERINPUT">rmdir /tmp/hejaz</kbd>
</pre>
</td>
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</table>
<p>That example will try to remove the <tt class="FILENAME">hejaz</tt> directory inside
the <tt class="FILENAME">/tmp</tt> directory.</p>
<p>You can also remove a directory and all of its parent directories by passing the <var
class="OPTION">-p</var> option.</p>
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<pre class="SCREEN">
<samp class="PROMPT">%</samp> <kbd class="USERINPUT">rmdir -p /tmp/hejaz</kbd>
</pre>
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<p>This will first try to remove the <tt class="FILENAME">hejaz</tt> directory inside <tt
class="FILENAME">/tmp</tt>. If that is successful, it will try to remove <tt
class="FILENAME">/tmp</tt>. <tt class="COMMAND">rmdir</tt> will continue this until an
error is encountered or the entire tree specified is removed.</p>
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