How to remove all files and subdirectories in a directory WITHOUT deleting the directory in bash?

Question

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"?

Answer 1

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.

Edit: Okay, I realized if you do have dot files [filenames with dots at the beginning, e.x. .hidden] then this will leave those files there.

The simplest approach is: rm -rfv dontDeleteMe && mkdir dontDeleteMe

Another one would be to use find's -exec option or pipe to xargs

Answer 2

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 

Answer 3

find /dontDeleteMe/ -xdev -depth -mindepth 1 -exec rm -Rf {} \;

Use xdev option to delete files only within device boundary.

Answer 4

To delete (in terminal) all files and subdirectories except for the base directory named "dontdelete":

rm -rf dontdelete/*

Answer 5

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.

Answer 6

Open terminal (Ctrl+Alt+T) ant type this:

find somedir -mindepth 1 -delete

Answer 7

There is an even simpler answer:

1. cd dontDeleteMe

2. 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 when you do it.

An alternative which makes sure your 'cd' command works before you issue the 'rm' is to use cd dontDeleteMe && rm -rf * .

Answer 8

There is a simple solution to this kind of problem,but to apply that you should know all stored type file in the folder and subfolder Go to search box type *.pdf, all the pdf file will be listed , Select all and delete. Again go to searc box type *.doc , all the word file will be listed, select all and delete. In this manner you can delete file , without disturbing directory tree.

Answer 9

Edit: Okay, I realized if you do have dot files [filenames with dots at the beginning, e.x. .hidden] then this will leave those files there.

And if you want to delete even hidden files you can just do this: rm -rf ./DontDeleteMe/.* ./DontDeleteMe/*