•Arnošt Havelka
Removing Files and Directories
Learn rm and rmdir to delete files and directories safely.
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Removing Files and Directories
The rm command deletes files permanently. Use it carefully—there's no trash can in the terminal!
Remove a Single File
Use rm filename to delete a file.
Usage:rmfilename
rm
Remove file - permanently deletes the specified file.
Delete instantly:
Command Prompt
important.txt
trash.txt
C:\Users\User>ls
Remove Multiple Files
Delete several files at once by listing them.
Usage:rmfile1 file2 file3
file1 file2 file3
Multiple files - deletes all specified files.
Batch deletion:
Command Prompt
keep.txt
delete1.txt
delete2.txt
C:\Users\User>ls
Remove Empty Directories: rmdir
The rmdir command removes empty directories. It refuses to delete non-empty ones.
Usage:rmdirdirectory
rmdir
Remove directory - deletes only empty directories.
Remove empty folders:
Command Prompt
Project/
EmptyFolder/
ls EmptyFolder/
C:\Users\User>ls
Remove Directories with Contents: rm -r
Use rm -r to delete directories and all their contents. Be very careful with this!
Usage:rm-rdirectory
-r
Recursive - deletes directory and everything inside it.
Delete entire trees:
Command Prompt
Project/
ls Project/
C:\Users\User>ls
Knowledge Check
1 / 3What does rm do?
References
These Microsoft Learn and Windows documentation links provide authoritative details for the commands used in this article.