How to remove files and directories recursively

[Vernon Brown_4]

The man page for rm says the command rm -r should remove files recursively and that rm -d should remove directories. I'm a little embarrassed that I've never been able to get that to work.

I need to remove a user's home directory that contains fifty or so sub directories with a thousand or so files. What is the easiest way to do that ???

Vern

[Mark Grant]

change directory to the directory above the user directory and go "rm -r user".

For example, if the user's home is "/home/mary" do

cd /home
rm -r mary

[Umapathy S]

rm -rf will do. Check your permissions to do that.

Umapathy

[Vernon Brown_4]

Thanks guys; I've been doing what you suggest. It doesn't work. rm -r comes back with

[root@linda /home]# rm -r vern
rm: descend into directory `vern'? y
rm: remove `vern/.bash_logout'? y
rm: remove `vern/.bash_profile'?

Surely there is a better way than to enter y return over a thousand times ??

Vern

[Mark Grant · Accepted solution]

Ahh, Red Hat for you!

try "rm -rf"

[Mark Grant]

Actually Vernon, I just noticed that this is exactly what Umapathy said!

Apologies Umapathy.

[Vernon Brown_4]

rm -rf works !!!!

BTW I get a 404 file not found error when I try to submit points. Something is amiss but I see that the points were assigned :o)

[Vernon Brown_4]

Sorry Umpathy; I didn't see the -rf; short changed you 5 points; I'll try to make it up !

Vern

[Seth Parker]

Vern,

Just as an FYI, RedHat enables the -i (interactive) option on the rm command by default. That's why you got all the questions. The same thing will happen if you do an 'rm *' in a directory. You'll get prompted to delete each file.

Hehe, you either get used to it, or always put the -f in the command. It's safer to get used to it and only use -f when you're *really* sure!

Regards,
Seth

[Mark Grant]

Alternatively, rather than get used to it (I never did. I don't like my unix commands behaving like MS/DOS commands) just use some alias that suits you.

[dirk dierickx]

in fact the 'rm' command in redhat is just an alias that is set when root logs in. you can view them with the 'alias' command. you can change 'rm' into whatever you want so that it will not ask you confirmation every time.

[Vernon Brown_4]

Thanks; good to know this stuff. I had been going into directories I wanted to delete, changing the owner of each file to a regular user then deleting them with the wildcard.

I'm still getting the "404 File Not Found" error when I try to submit points in this forum. It is a stickey error message; only way I've found out of it is to log out then reconnect.

Vern

[Mark Grant]

Vernon,

That 404 error is being worked on at the moment. What is happening is the page showing an aknowledgemnt for your point assignment is missing. The points are actually assigned and all is well with the world. You just need to "back" your browser a bit to get back to where you want to be.