how to delete directory

[Jason Tan]

i have a directory that i want to delete, if i go inside the directory and key in command like rm *, the message prompt : arg list too long. If i use rm -r to delete the directory, it take too long.

Now, is there a faster way to do?

[Sridhar Bhaskarla]

Hi,

Try "rm a* c* d*"

and keep doing it.

-Sri

[Patrick Wallek]

'rm -r dirname' will probably be the quickest way. If the directory has lots of files, it could take a while.

Sridhar's way could work too, but it will also take a while, especially if you have to go thru a*, b*, etc. for all letters of the alphabet.

[James R. Ferguson]

Hi Jason:

# rm -fr thedir

...will recursively delete the directory's contents and the directory itself. If it takes a long time, that's a reflection of the number of files and subdirectories being processed.

Regards!

...JRF...

[Michael Tully]

You could also try this:

# find . -type f -name "*" -print | xargs rm

[Jason Tan]

But, what about the directory cannot be deleted? so, rm -r still is the quickest way?

[Michael Tully]

# find . -type d -name "mydirname" -print | xargs rm -rf

Using the find command in conjunction with the 'xargs' command should fix the problem with the 'arg list' being too long

[KCS_1]

Hi,

Look at man pages of "rmdir" and "rm" commands.

I think that good way to get delete the director.

# rmdir -f directory

or


# rm -rf directory


Happy new year!!

[Patrick Wallek]

The directory cannot be deleted until all the files and sub-directories within it are deleted.

Thus the command:

# rm -rf dirname

[Bill Hassell]

rm -r dir_name is the fastest way to delete the files. The "arg list too long" is a message that indicates the directory contains thousands of files so using the * to represent the list will produce a command line that is too long.

As far as the speed, there is nothing faster since every file removed must be properly handled in the directory structures. Now if the directory is actually a mountpoint, then you can always un-mount the directory and use newfs to create an empty directory in just a couple of seconds.

[Ravi_8]

Hi,

rm -rf will delete all files in the directory including directory

[Chakravarthi]

do
sh
get into the directory
run

for i in $i; do ls ; rm -rf $i; echo $i; done

regards
chakri