recursively removing directories

recursively removing directories

[Matthew Stapleton]

How do I recursively remove all the subdirectories and contents of a
particular directory in Linux? I know of 'rmdir', but this only works for
empty directories.  I need something like DOS's 'deltree'.

Thanks,
Matthew Stapleton
 
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Re: recursively removing directories

[Joseph Jackson]

Matthew Stapleton wrote:

> How do I recursively remove all the subdirectories and contents of a
> particular directory in Linux? I know of 'rmdir', but this only works for
> empty directories.  I need something like DOS's 'deltree'.
> 
> Thanks,
> Matthew Stapleton
>  
> -
> To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe linux-newbie" in
> the body of a message to majordomo@vger.kernel.org
> More majordomo info at  http://vger.kernel.org/majordomo-info.html
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> 
> 

Like this rm -rf /whatever  the -r is ofcourse recursive and the -f is force is 
it won't ask you.

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Re: recursively removing directories

[cr]

On Sunday 30 June 2002 13:50, Joseph Jackson wrote:
> Matthew Stapleton wrote:
> > How do I recursively remove all the subdirectories and contents of a
> > particular directory in Linux? I know of 'rmdir', but this only works for
> > empty directories.  I need something like DOS's 'deltree'.
> >
> > Thanks,
> > Matthew Stapleton
> >
>
> Like this rm -rf /whatever  the -r is ofcourse recursive and the -f is
> force is it won't ask you.
>

... and be VERY CAREFUL using it!!!!

(man rm   will give you the syntax).

cr
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Re: recursively removing directories

[Richard Adams]

On Sunday 30 June 2002 01:44, Matthew Stapleton wrote:
> How do I recursively remove all the subdirectories and contents of a
> particular directory in Linux? I know of 'rmdir', but this only works for
> empty directories.  I need something like DOS's 'deltree'.

You got 2 other answers to your question, one mentioned the need to be "very 
carefull" with rm, what they did not say is you can wipe out your complete 
system with rm and its options.
I would strongly advise you to use 'mc' the linux answer to 
midnight-commander.
You will have more oversight as to what you are deleting and will not be faced 
with the same problem we saw here a few days ago when someone asked how he 
could recover his system after he made a mistake with rm -rf.


>
> Thanks,
> Matthew Stapleton

-- 
Regards Richard
pa3gcu@zeelandnet.nl
http://people.zeelandnet.nl/pa3gcu/



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Re: recursively removing directories

[Matthew Stapleton]

The reason I asked is because I expanded a *.tar.gz file to look-at/build
and then decided I needed to erase the directory later....Thanks for the
warning....

Matthew


On Sun, 30 Jun 2002 08:26:37 +0000 Richard Adams <pa3gcu@zeelandnet.nl>
writes:
> On Sunday 30 June 2002 01:44, Matthew Stapleton wrote:
> > How do I recursively remove all the subdirectories and contents of 
> a
> > particular directory in Linux? I know of 'rmdir', but this only 
> works for
> > empty directories.  I need something like DOS's 'deltree'.
> 
> You got 2 other answers to your question, one mentioned the need to 
> be "very 
> carefull" with rm, what they did not say is you can wipe out your 
> complete 
> system with rm and its options.
> I would strongly advise you to use 'mc' the linux answer to 
> midnight-commander.
> You will have more oversight as to what you are deleting and will 
> not be faced 
> with the same problem we saw here a few days ago when someone asked 
> how he 
> could recover his system after he made a mistake with rm -rf.
> 
> 
> >
> > Thanks,
> > Matthew Stapleton
> 
> -- 
> Regards Richard
> pa3gcu@zeelandnet.nl
> http://people.zeelandnet.nl/pa3gcu/
> 
> 
> 
> -
> To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe 
> linux-newbie" in
> the body of a message to majordomo@vger.kernel.org
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> Please read the FAQ at http://www.linux-learn.org/faqs
> 

 
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Re: recursively removing directories

[Richard Adams]

On Sunday 30 June 2002 10:04, Matthew Stapleton wrote:
> The reason I asked is because I expanded a *.tar.gz file to look-at/build
> and then decided I needed to erase the directory later....Thanks for the
> warning....

Ok, well you can read a tar.gz file first with 'zless' you can then navigate 
thro' it with the search option which is '/' an example would be;
zless foo.tar.gz
/INSTALL
Now you will see all instances of the word INSTALL, ctrl-l goes to the next 
instance.
man less will explain.

Another hint to remove dirs is go into the directory to be deleted, then use 
rm -rf * and or rm -rf .* then cd .. rmdir <foo>
That way is a safer method but caution is the word.

>
> Matthew
>

-- 
Regards Richard
pa3gcu@zeelandnet.nl
http://people.zeelandnet.nl/pa3gcu/



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