Linux remove all data

Use rm to Delete Files and Directories on Linux

Estamos traduciendo nuestros guías y tutoriales al Español. Es posible que usted esté viendo una traducción generada automáticamente. Estamos trabajando con traductores profesionales para verificar las traducciones de nuestro sitio web. Este proyecto es un trabajo en curso.

This guide shows how to use rm to remove files, directories, and other content from the command line in Linux.

To avoid creating examples that might remove important files, this Quick Answer uses variations of filename.txt . Adjust each command as needed.

The Basics of Using rm to Delete a File

rm filename1.txt filename2.txt 

Options Available for rm

-i Interactive mode

Confirm each file before delete:

-f Force

-v Verbose

Show report of each file removed:

-d Directory

Note: This option only works if the directory is empty. To remove non-empty directories and the files within them, use the r flag.

-r Recursive

Remove a directory and any contents within it:

Combine Options

Options can be combined. For example, to remove all .png files with a prompt before each deletion and a report following each:

remove filename01.png? y filename01.png remove filename02.png? y filename02.png remove filename03.png? y filename03.png remove filename04.png? y filename04.png remove filename05.png? y filename05.png

-rf Remove Files and Directories, Even if Not Empty

Add the f flag to a recursive rm command to skip all confirmation prompts:

Combine rm with Other Commands

Remove Old Files Using find and rm

Combine the find command’s -exec option with rm to find and remove all files older than 28 days old. The files that match are printed on the screen ( -print ):

find filename* -type f -mtime +28 -exec rm '<>' ';' -print 

In this command’s syntax, <> is replaced by the find command with all files that it finds, and ; tells find that the command sequence invoked with the -exec option has ended. In particular, -print is an option for find , not the executed rm . <> and ; are both surrounded with single quote marks to protect them from interpretation by the shell.

This page was originally published on Tuesday, July 3, 2018.

Источник

How to remove all files of a directory in Linux

Files are created and saved in the directories of Linux, they can be text files, image files, music files, or any other format. These files occupy some space and many files present in our system are purposeless, they should be deleted in order to make space for new files.

In Linux, we can either delete/remove a single file or delete all the files from a directory using a single command in a terminal. In this write-up, we will discuss the ways to remove all the files in a directory of Linux.

How to remove all files in a directory of Linux

We have directories in a path /home/hammad/ with a name, new_directory, new_directory1, new_directory2, and new_directory3 that contain files, to view it, and list down the components of the path:

To view the files of “new_directory”, use the command:

To remove these files from the directory “new_directory”, we can simply use the command of “rm”, the general syntax of using the rm command is:

The explanation to the syntax is simple:

• Use the command of rm to remove the files from the directory
• Use any options like to display the progress, to remove it forcibly
• Type the pathname where the directory is located
• Mention the filenames which you want to remove or simply use “*” to remove all the files from the directory

Suppose we want to remove all the files from the “/home/hammad/new_directory/*” path, we will use the command:

We can also display the progress of the removed files by using the flag “-v”, we will execute the command:

In the above command, the “-v” flag is used to display the progress of the command where “*” is used to delete all the files of the directory and for verification that all the files are deleted, we will again list down the content of the directory using the command:

The above command verified that the directory contains no files and there are some other useful options as well; the “-f” which is used to delete the files forcibly and “-r” deletes the directory and its files, we will use all these flags altogether to delete the files of “new_directory2”

In the above output, we can see that the “-r” flag removes the sub directory, “officedirectory”, from the new_directory2, to list the files of new_directory2, we use the ls command:

We have another option that is “-i”, if we use this option, it will ask for permission before deleting each file should we continue to delete it or not, if we still want to delete it, type “y” or “n” to cancel it. We will use “-i”, to delete files of new_directory3:

In the above command, it can be seen that we have confirmed to delete “myfile” and canceled to delete “myscript.sh”, to view the files in the folder:

We can see the “myscript.sh” file has not been removed from the directory.

To delete all the empty directories we use the “rmdir” command:

All the empty directories are removed, use ls command to verify:

Conclusion

Removing the files from the directory will create free space for the new files and applications. Therefore, files of no use should be removed from the system. To remove all the files from the directory the convenient way is to use the rm command which is discussed in this write-up. Different options can also be used along with the rm command which is also discussed with the help of examples.

About the author

Hammad Zahid

I’m an Engineering graduate and my passion for IT has brought me to Linux. Now here I’m learning and sharing my knowledge with the world.

Источник

Unix Command to Delete all files in a directory but preserve the directory

I am looking for a unix command to delete all files within a directory without deleting the directory itself. (note the directory does not contain subdirectories).

8 Answers 8

EDIT: added -i just in case (safety first). directory should be a full or relative path (e.g. /tmp/foo or ../trash/stuffs )

of course, you can always cd to your directory and then perform a «rm -i *» please note that the -i flag will force confirmation of each deletion, is there just for safety (nasty things will occurr if you misplace a / in your commandline and you provide a -r flag. )

I’m using rm -r * but it’s asking for a confirmation on each file deletion. To stop this it’s rm -rf * yes? Trying to delete all from current directory.

-r perform recursive deletion, -f forces deletion, assuming the rm command has not been aliased, I’d go with a rm -f *

it deletes all file inside the «yourdirectory» directory

I wouldn’t suggest to a unix newbie to use the -r switch, what if OP misplaces a / on the command line ?

Understandable but the issue is that i am clearing out spam from the remote qmail folder. There is thousands of messages to clear so I need a practical way of doing it without confirmation on each deletion.

You can use find /path/to/your/folder/ -delete to delete everything within that folder.

While a wildcard rm would braek with too many files («Argument list too long»), this works no matter how many files there are.

You can also make it delete only files but preserve any subdirectories:

find /path/to/your/folder/ -type f -delete 

You could also specify any other criteria find supports to restrict the «results».

Источник

How To Remove All Files in a Directory in Linux

Files saved in Linux directories include music, text, image, and other file formats. They tend to occupy some space and are sometimes entirely purposeless. In such a case, you might want to delete all these files to make space for new ones. In Linux, you can remove a single or all the files using a specific command in a terminal. This article will discuss the best methods to remove all files in a Linux directory using the rm and unlink commands.

Tutorial Details

Difficulty Level

Easy

In this article

Method 1: Remove All Files in a Directory in Linux Using the rm Command

The rm command is one of the top commands to delete all files in a directory in Linux. People initially used it to remove files and directories with suitable options. It is a manual method to remove files manually rather than deleting a non-empty folder immediately. This command is much safer than most options, and it also prevents the removal of important files accidentally. The basic syntax for the rm command is ‘rm/path/to/dir/’ and ‘ rm -r/path/to/dir/.’

The command rm/path/to/dir/ is used to delete a directory and all its content in the Linux terminal. While the rm removes files and directories from a system, the /path/to/dir/ part of the command clearly states the path to the directory you want to delete. When using this command, you should replace this part with the actual path to the directory on your system.

On the other hand, the rm/ -r /path/to/dir/ is used to delete a directory and its content in Linux recursively. The -r option represents recursive and tells explicitly the rm command to delete not just a specific directory but all files and subdirectories contained within it. Below is a breakdown of various components of the command:

• rm is the command used to remove files and directories
• -r is the option that tells the rm command to delete directories and their contents recursively
• /path/to/dir/ is the path to the directory you want to delete. When using the command, replace this with the actual path to the directory on your system.

It is worthy of note that sometimes, using the rm command might require that you confirm each deletion before it is executed. To prevent this, you can use the -f option to force the deletion without confirmation.

Options (-r, -f, -v) and How They Work

You can use several options to change how the rm command works while removing all files in a Linux directory. Below are some of the rm command options and how they work.

• -r: remove directories and their contents recursively
• -f: This is the force option and forces the rm command to ignore nonexistent files and arguments without prompting for confirmation. This is a dangerous option, so it’s essential to be careful when using this option.
• -v: This is the verbose option and shows clearly what the rm is doing on the screen.

Example to Remove all the Files in a Directory

If you have a directory titled /home/vivek/data/ and want to remove all files in a Linux directory using the rm command, run the command:

If you want to see what is being done while the rm command deletes all the files in a directory, add the -v option to the rm command. Below is the command to display the progress of the removed file using the -v option:

Example to Delete Hidden and Non-Hidden Files

In Linux, files that start with a dot character are known as dot file. They’re hidden files, and you can use the -a option to view these hidden files. Example is:

To remove all files, including the hidden files in a directory, use the command:

Overall, it’s essential to be careful when deleting files using the rm command as it permanently deletes files, and you cannot quickly recover them. Confirm that you’re deleting the correct files before running the command.

Method 2: Remove All Files in a Directory in Linux Using the unlink Command

The unlink command is another option when you have to remove files in Linux. It doesn’t remove a full directory or multiple files simultaneously, as the unlink command only removes a single file simultaneously. It also doesn’t allow using wildcards like * when using the command.

The syntax for using the unlink command is:

For example, if you want to delete a file named doc.txt in a documentary, then enter the command:

The unlink command has several limitations, like the lack of ability to remove multiple files at once. Therefore, it’s recommended that you use the rm command instead, as it provides more possibilities.

What To Do if You’ve Mistakenly Deleted Files in Linux

If you mistakenly rm delete all files in a Linux directory, then you have some options to recover the deleted files. The highly recommended one is Wondershare Recoverit Linux File Recovery. Wondershare created this top recovery tool with the primary goal of recovering all types of data loss.

Источник