How to Remove Empty and Non Empty Directories in Linux

Removing a directory in Linux is harder than you think, and it's not uncommon to get errors that looks like this:

folder: Directory not empty
folder: is a directory

The confusion comes because rmdir cannot be used to delete a directory with files or folders inside of it.

Remove a non-empty directory on Linux

To remove a directory on linux, which is not empty, pass the -r flag to rm. -r means recursive, so it deletes everything in a folder, including the folder itself. Replace 'folder' below with your folder's name or location.

rm -r folder

Remove multiple non-empty directories on Linux

If you want to remove multiple directories on linux, and they are not empty, simply separate the folder names with a space, and use rm -r:

rm -r folder1 folder2 folder3

Remove an empty directory on Linux

If you want to remove a directory on linux, and your directory is empty, with no folders or files in it, then use rmdir:

rmdir folder

Comments

[Carlie Crosby]

Great breakdown of directory removal in Linux! For advanced users, consider combining find with -empty or -exec flags for batch processing. It’s a powerful way to clean directories efficiently. Thanks for sharing!