Questions tagged [rm]
rm is the command to remove files
796
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Simple way to delete files absolutely [duplicate]
I want to actually delete files in linux, as opposed to just erasing the representation of a file, with the command rm, for example, actually deleting the file literally, and as a basic good security ...
16
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4
answers
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Delete a file called '.env'$'\r'
I have no idea what created this file - I guess a terrible shell script.
It is called '.env'$'\r'
I have tried various versions of rm, and the technique of opening the direcory with vim ./, selecting ...
0
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2
answers
29
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Erasing the boot disk on an external hard drive
I recently had my original computer stolen so I bought a second hand one and created a boot disk for Bullseye using dd in a linux VM on the original windows OS.
This worked perfectly fine and bullseye ...
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3
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How to display a prompt and prevent execution against basic but dangerous commands like mv or rm
Objective
Whenever I use mv (or commands of similar nature) I want my shell to prompt me something like "Hey, you used mv. Sorry but do it again using mv -i".
I'd like to know the reasonable ...
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1
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Deleting Files in a Directory that contain a single quote (') character
I Have files as such:
"contrail's",
hello
, "larch's"...etc
How could I delete files that contain a single quote (') character(ex: "kibosh's" ).
I was thinking in using ...
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Deleting A List Of Files Using Grep [duplicate]
I want to delete files in a given directory (/home/cs12/derf/files) which only contain the single word "Delete" in its file contents. Any file that does not have the expected content should ...
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0
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Recovering deleted directory with rm -rf /* (no sudo)
I am (was) running a Minecraft server in my second computer (Debian).
I was deleting some files in the server and i did rm -rf /* instead of rm -rf *, which deleted everything that did not require ...
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2
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why rmdir can work well when delete cgroup directory but rm -rf can not?
Here is a cgroup tree. Root node is demo and it has only one child
demo/
├── cgroup.clone_children
├── cgroup.procs
├── cgroup.sane_behavior
├── child
│ ├── cgroup.clone_children
│ ├── cgroup....
18
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2
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I've copied a directory with `cp -as` and now I'm terrified to `rm -rf` the created directory as it might delete the original
I've copied a directory with cp -as /media/user/dir symlinks and now I'm terrified to rm -rf symlinks as it might delete files in /media/user/dir
What is the safe way to only delete the directory ...
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1
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change rm alias to mv
Reference: how to change `rm` to as a command like `mv ~/ .trash`
I would like to implement recycle bin utility in UNIX since UNIX not has one.
In .bashrc file I change alias rm='move.sh"
as per ...
1
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1
answer
51
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How to rm files starting with a digit
I have following files starting with a digit.
$ echo [0-9]*
1001tracklistsIcon.svelte 1passwordIcon.svelte 3mIcon.svelte 42Icon.svelte 4chanIcon.svelte 4dIcon.svelte 500pxIcon.svelte
And I'd like to ...
0
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1
answer
123
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sudo rm -rf directory/* does not work with certain permission settings [duplicate]
I have a directory /var/opt/gitlab/backups with the following permissions:
[user@localhost ~]$ sudo ls -la /var/opt/gitlab/backups
total 1316296
drwx------. 2 git root 63 1月 21 21:44 .
...
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1
answer
516
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Correct usage of "rm" to remove files matching a pattern
If I want to use the rm command to remove all files with the .log extension from a directory, how can I do that?
I tried - rm * .log , but I don't know if it works.
3
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2
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145
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how to delete files from list.txt and use a wildcard?
Trying to delete files using a list of the headers and a wildcard. The headers for the files are the same but the endings are different. Not sure how to get the wildcard in there.
I was trying to ...
7
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1
answer
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Why does "find -delete" imply "-depth"?
The man page for GNU find clearly warns that using -delete implies -depth. However, I cannot find any explanation for this requirement:
-delete Delete files; true if removal succeeded. If the ...
1
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1
answer
1k
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Cron job to delete all files older than 7 days: -exec rm -f {} \; vs -delete [duplicate]
I want to run a cron job which deletes .txt files older than 7 days. I have two commands.
The first command:
/usr/bin/find /var/www/example.com/wp-content/targetdir -name "*.txt" -type f -...
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Delete all files in directories tomcat_*/temp on each application restart
We do have an operation script to stop, restart and start tomcat services. I am asked to make changes in the operation script so when starting tomcat with operation_script.sh, All files in directories ...
-1
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1
answer
106
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How to remove a full directory via Debian commandline? [duplicate]
I am trying to make a bash install script. One of the tasks it has to do is to remove a certain full directory if it is present. I tried rmdir [location of directory] but it gives an error saying ...
17
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2
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Why doesn't rmdir work recursively?
rmdir deletes only an empty directory. To delete recursively, rm -rf is used.
Why doesn't rmdir have a recursive option? Logically, when I am deleting a directory, I want to use rmdir.
Given that rm ...
0
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1
answer
95
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Prevent rm -r of btrfs snapshots
I would like to use btrfs snapshots as a safety measure in case of accidental sudo rm -rf /* or similar but unfortunately you can delete readonly snapshots with rm -r.
Can I disable this "feature&...
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1
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58
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How to remove only links, but not actual files?
I have a folder full of .svg files, some of which are actual files and others are merely links to files. They both have the .svg file extension, however the actual files are labeled "SVG Image&...
0
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1
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56
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Delete directory tree that contains read-only directories
If you run rm -rf dir and dir contains read-only directories then it will fail to remove any files in that directory.
Is there any way to make rm recognise that and chmod the directory to be writable ...
3
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2
answers
305
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Permission denied on trying to "rm -rf" my own directory on macOS command line
I have noticed rm -rf has a strange behavior in my macOS BigSur.
I created a directory for a font installation:
~/code ❯ ls -la 10:06:54
total ...
0
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0
answers
132
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Accidentally ran "rm -rf /" on macOS
A friend mentioned to me that he couldn't believe that the command to delete everything on a unix system was only eight characters long. I told him that you actually needed to use "--no-preserve-...
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1
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106
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Cannot delete directory
I am trying to delete a directory.
rm -rf bla
rm: cannot remove ‘bla’: Directory not empty
It looks empty. I have also tried rmdir.
The ownership and groups looks fine. In fact, the directory was ...
0
votes
1
answer
98
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Can not delete files
I copied some files from a DVD using the 'cp -a' command. Now, I can't delete any of the copied files. I set selinux to "permissive" to remove that as source of the problem. Here is what ...
2
votes
3
answers
480
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How to avoid use of rm -rf in bash scripts?
I had once a dangerous experience with the use of rm -rf, due to a unset variable.
Since then, I have been extremely cautious in composing a script that involves rm -rf. Cross checking the spell ...
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1
answer
2k
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How to recover files deleted by rm -vr?
When looking up a way to uninstall minecraft using console commands, the very first result on google told me to use the command: rm -vr ~/ .minecraft/*.
I thought, oh well, I'm specifying the ...
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0
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What is a good way to redefine rm so to prevent accidental home deletion? [duplicate]
So it already happened to me once, I was trying to run
rm -r ~/.emacs.d
But accidentally hit enter at just the wrong moment.
rm -r ~
Luckily I run into protected files before deleting everything, ...
2
votes
1
answer
37
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Ensuring no files were deleted from directory at a certain time
I accidentally started an rm -rf on a large directory that I was working in. The directory contains, among other things, a data directory containing a number of subdirectories that each contain ...
2
votes
4
answers
176
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rm -rf : is there an all or nothing (atomic) approach?
Let's say I have the following structure :
$ mkdir d1
$ mkdir d1/d2
$ touch d1/f1
$ touch d1/d2/f2
$ chmod u-w d1/d2
If I try to remove d1, I can't because I don't have write permissions on d1/d2. ...
23
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9
answers
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Is `yes | rm -r` safer than `rm -rf`?
I have heard many times that issuing rm -rf is dangerous since users can accidentally remove the entire system. But sometimes I want to remove a directory recursively without being asked every time. I ...
0
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1
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84
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Delete all folders in specified path that do not have word "edit" in them?
I'm trying to set up a simple script that would clean up my working folder.
The working folder is structured like that:
Project 1
Project 1 [edited]
Project 2
Project 2 [edited]
Project 3
Project 3 [...
0
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1
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57
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Oracle Linux 6.7 - Nohup: Argument list too long
There are 1 million directories and some files in directories (.pdf, .csv etc.) under the path I have specified below:
/data/upl/repo/exp/
I want all files and folders older than 1 year to be deleted,...
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1
answer
70
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Is it OK if I add a duplicated option when calling an alias for rm?
I have alias rm='rm -i' in .bashrc.
Now, if I use rm -i by mistake, it will become rm -i -i.
Would anything go wrong because of two same options?
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1
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Find all *.xml.err files with certain content in certain directory and need to move the *.xml files to its parent directory and remove *.xml.err files
I am trying to compose a Linux shell command but stuck here.
Here is the background:
The system will generate .xml and .xml.error correspondingly under /tmp/A/processed,/tmp/A/not_processed,/tmp/B/...
0
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0
answers
79
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Why this script doesn't work from cron while it works when invoke from my shell?
The following code does work when invoked from my shell:
#!/usr/bin/bash
how_many=$(find /home/jerzy/pCloudDrive -type d -iname "CS202*"|wc -l)
#/usr/bin/echo ${how_many} >>/home/...
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1
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767
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I ran “sudo rm -rf /*” and now my PC won't boot
I ran
sudo rm -rf /*
on Zorin OS because my friend dared me to and now I can't even boot to my motherboard BIOS. How should I go about fixing this? Or am I hopelessly doomed?
I have tried power ...
1
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1
answer
91
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how to globally unalias rm cp mv in RHEL 7
from a clean instal of RHEL 7.9 x86_64, all users (including root) have a bash shell.
And the commands mv and cp and rm are aliased to have the i option to them.
Which I do not like; how does one ...
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I accidentally typed sudo rm /* resulting in loss of "ls" and possibly other commands [duplicate]
I am a beginner and for deleting the files in the directory tried to use sudo rm / after which I said that it couldn't delete /home, etc. On seeing the files I realized that I just passed in the ...
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scp / ssh: deleting a big file (1 TB+) WHILE it is being transferred
EDIT — To clarify/summarize, the scenario is the following:
- Context: Large file (1 TB+) on server A, virtually no disk space left on server A, disk utilization on A keeps growing rapidly and that ...
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0
answers
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How to safely remove directory tree in script with path defined by a variable
This is a very basic question, and surely has been asked before, but I am having trouble finding the answer or guidance. There are e.g. these but they don't quite hit the mark:
How to safely remove ...
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1
answer
180
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How rm command free up disk space?
I'm trying to understand how rm command works and get this one:
The rm command removes the entry of specified file from indexing.
Since file is removed, Linux marks the block where the file was ...
2
votes
1
answer
203
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How to use the shred command the right way?
I got to know about shred yesterday.
I want to know the proper way of removing files with it.
Should I first shred the file and then use rm to remove it?
$shred <file>
$rm <file>
Or ...
1
vote
2
answers
69
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Can't delete multiple files with spaces on name with rm
I'm working on a deploy script for my dotfiles, they are stored on a Git bare repository, from which i git checkout it's files into my home directory, in order to seamlessy do it without thousands of ...
0
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2
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80
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Does the speed of operations on a file (copy, move, remove) depend on permissions of that file?
Does the speed of operations on a file (copy, move, remove) depend on permissions of that file? If so, then how?
Reason: need to constantly perform mentioned operations on many files. Will these ...
2
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1
answer
398
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Why is deleting files in Ubuntu slow?
I read on a stackoveflow post that on Linux, when we delete a file, it is not actually deleted, only the link from the inode table is removed to that file. If that is the case, then why isn't delete a ...
0
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1
answer
209
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How to safely remove all files (including hidden files) from current directory (after cding to that directory)?
How to safely remove all files (including hidden files) from current directory (after cding to that directory)?
As far as I know, cd RELEVANT_DIR && rm * won't remove hidden files.
I would ...
33
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3
answers
4k
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I just deleted everything in my home directory. How? And why are some files still there?
Never thought this would happen to me, but there you go. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
I ran a build script from a repository inside the wrong directory without looking at the source first. Here's the script Scripts/...
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1
answer
58
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find + delete folders with extension when using variable
we have linux rhel machine 7.2 with the following folders under /kafka/topics
drwxr-xr-x 2 root kafka 141 May 11 17:19 bgol.ase.fgt.dad3-1
drwxr-xr-x 2 root kafka 141 May 11 17:19 bgol.ase.fgt....