Is there a command to remove all files and subdirectories in a directory without deleting the directory?
For example if I have directory dontDeleteMe with subdirectories 1, 2, 3 and each subdirectory has a few pictures in it, how can I remove the subdirectories 1, 2, and 3 and all the files in the them, without removing the parent directory dontDeleteMe?
To remove everything in a directory without removing the directory, type in:
rm -rfv dontDeleteMe/*
Please note, the /* part is very important. If you put a space before the *, it will delete all your files in your current directory.
Also, be very careful playing with rm, -r and * all in the same command. They can be a disastrous combination.
Update: Okay, I realized if you do have hidden/dot files [filenames with dots at the beginning, e.x. .hidden] then this will leave those files intact.
So really, the simplest solution to the original question is:
rm -rfv dontDeleteMe && mkdir dontDeleteMe
Another one would be to use find's -exec option or pipe to xargs (below):
find dontDeleteMe/* -print0 | xargs -0 rm -rv
find dontDeleteMe/* -print0 | xargs -0 rm -rv I believe in most cases this will work, regardless of spaces, and what not. But cd to /tmp/ and make a test directory and try it out. :)
rm -rf dontDeleteMe && mkdir dontDeleteMe doesn't ensure that the dir is re-created with the same permissions/owner(s). Instead, use one of the find dontDeleteMe/ -mindepth 1 -delete variants below.
Jan 15, 2015 at 13:31
Open terminal (Ctrl+Alt+T) ant type this:
find somedir -mindepth 1 -delete
This will match all files and directories within somedir and its (grand-)children including "hidden" dot files but excluding somedir itself because of -mindepth 1, then -delete them.
find with -mindepth 1 and rm is that the former will keep the directory and only delete its contents. It's not safer per se, both will delete everything in the directory without confirmation if you have the permissions to do so. But find is more flexible (it has many more options than rm).
Jun 7, 2022 at 13:51
find */web/sites/default/files -delete
The only reason rm -r ./* do not always work is because you can have hidden files and/or folder that are not matched by *.
To this end, bash provide an option to make * match everything, even hidden objects:
cd dont-delete-me
shopt -s dotglob
rm -r ./*
It can be useful to reset dotglob to its default (unset) state, if you keep on using the shell where you executed the above commands:
shopt -u dotglob
find /dontDeleteMe/ -xdev -depth -mindepth 1 -exec rm -Rf {} \;
Use xdev option to delete files only within device boundary.
-delete. It implies -depth and is easier to remember than -depth -exec rm -Rf {} \;
Jan 15, 2015 at 13:38
To delete (in terminal) all files and subdirectories except for the base directory named "dontdelete":
rm -rf dontdelete/*
You can use find with the -delete flag:
find dontDeleteMe/* -delete
The /* is important as it tells find to search only INSIDE the folder called "dontDeleteMe".
Also ensure that the -delete flag is at the end of the find command.
dotglob. Otherwise, using the -mindepth 1 flag option seems the only way to get it working.
Jul 25, 2015 at 15:59
rm -rf directory/{.*,/*}
What says:
Remove all files starting with . in "directory" and all other files too.
Though as kindly noted by Neftas this solution is not safe!
Safer solution is:
rm -rf directory/!(.|..)
. and .. directories. This may be avoided by changing {.*} to {.??*}, but then you won't delete hidden files with only one character, such as .a.
Jul 25, 2015 at 12:13
There is an even simpler answer:
cd dontDeleteMe
rm -rf *
Basic system administration lecture time: Be sure to pay attention to where you are when you use sweeping commands like this.
I can't say that enough. I've had to recover a box because someone wasn't paying attention and typed in rm -rf * while in /.
*nix assumes that if you are root or if you are sudo-ing as root that you know what you are doing. So make sure that you know what you're doing before you do it.
An alternative which makes sure your 'cd' command works before you issue the 'rm' is to use
cd dontDeleteMe && rm -rf *
cd dontDeleteMe && rm -rf *
&& operator doesn't just chain the commands together; it requires that each command be successful before the next one will be executed. If the cd command fails for any reason (directory doesn't exist, privileges, etc) then the rm command won't be executed. I'd call that safer.
I am not sure why this is so complex, help me if i am wrong
cd DoNotDeleteDir #<- this is just to make sure we are inside
find . | xargs rm -rf
That's it
rmdir ../tmp, from an empty directory called tmp, will do that. The technique in this answer doesn't delete the current directory because the rm command special-cases the specific pathnames . and .., refusing to operate on them. Thus rm: refusing to remove '.' or '..' directory: skipping '.' (from GNU rm, which provides /bin/rm in Ubuntu) is quite literally what is happening. rmdir . behaves similarly, though it shows a less illuminating Invalid argument error. @DavidFoerster
Jun 2, 2020 at 2:24
rm -rf * anyway.
Nov 9, 2016 at 0:46
rm -rf ${PWD}/*
will clear the present working directory
I would use find as suggested by guciek's answer, and add -xdev to make sure it doesn't descend into other filesystems:
find 'dontDeleteMe' -xdev -mindepth 1 -deletea
(I added quotes in case the real path contains spaces)
An alternative with Bash and rm could be
rm -rf 'dontDeleteMe'/{*,.[!.]*}
This would also remove hidden files, without producing errors. See this answer for details.
