rmdir when directory is not empty

CodeHeads ch at code-heads.com
Tue Dec 20 22:09:51 UTC 2005


John Kebbel wrote:
> I assume OP stands for Original Poster (correct me if I'm wrong).
> Anyway, I'm the Original Poster of "rmdir when directory is not empty"
> I've gotten an incredible education from asking this question ...
> 
> 1. man rmdir didn't answer my question because it was a truncated man
> page, something I didn't even know existed
> 2. The full man page for rmdir wouldn't have solved my problem if I had
> run it because most people suggested a solution using rm instead of
> rmdir. The RTFM advice wouldn't have helped if I was reading the Wrong
> FM.
> 3. RTFM advocates may have forgotten what it's like to be a newbie or a
> newbie to some areas. I read man pages a lot, but a lot of what I read
> makes no sense to me. That's why I go to discussion boards.
> 4. I asked my question assuming rmdir was half my solution. The
> suggested solutions ...
> 
>      rm -fR directoryname
> 
> and
> 
>      # Delete the files.
>      su - -c "find /path/to/dirName -type f -exec rm -f {} \;"
> 
>      # Delete the directory paths.
>      su - -c "rmdir -p /path/to/dirName"
> 
> showed me I should stick to a more general description of my problem
> (How do I delete non-empty directories?)
> 
> 


SIMPLE
rm -fr directory_name

~WILL~




More information about the users mailing list