1 00:00:06,679 --> 00:00:09,300 In this video, we'll talk about removing files. 2 00:00:10,029 --> 00:00:11,570 RM is the utility to use. 3 00:00:12,550 --> 00:00:16,950 We have already seen rmdir. RMDIR is used to remove empty directories, and 4 00:00:16,950 --> 00:00:21,350 because directories are not often empty, it's not the most useful command. 5 00:00:22,570 --> 00:00:28,649 Rm is used to remove files as well as directories with contents, as long as you use the appropriate options. 6 00:00:30,039 --> 00:00:35,369 If you're not sure about yourself, use RM I. That will prompt for confirmation on all files. 7 00:00:35,869 --> 00:00:40,185 That's a lot of fun. If you delete 1000 files or so, then 8 00:00:40,185 --> 00:00:44,500 you better use RM F. That will force and don't ask anything. 9 00:00:45,820 --> 00:00:52,280 RM RF removes an entire directory tree without asking, and that allows you to clean it up nicely. 10 00:00:53,420 --> 00:00:58,446 If you really want to do something nasty, use RM RF no preserve 11 00:00:58,446 --> 00:01:03,473 root or on slash, where slash is the root directory of everything that 12 00:01:03,473 --> 00:01:08,500 will try to remove really everything, and that's not really recommended. 13 00:01:09,659 --> 00:01:15,036 Hey, let's talk about that and let me use RM RF 14 00:01:15,036 --> 00:01:20,413 no preserve root on slash and. Oh boy, what am I 15 00:01:20,413 --> 00:01:25,790 getting? Well, I'm stopping it. I'm getting permission denied. 16 00:01:25,829 --> 00:01:27,170 An operation not permitted. 17 00:01:27,670 --> 00:01:32,730 Does that make sense? That absolutely makes sense because I'm an ordinary user. 18 00:01:34,049 --> 00:01:39,884 The only risk that you've got if you are trying to do something like this is that you delete your 19 00:01:39,884 --> 00:01:45,719 home directory as well. But fortunately it was first struggling with this proc directory where it didn't have any permissions. 20 00:01:46,469 --> 00:01:50,849 I might like to do some cleaning up RM RF on tmp. 21 00:01:52,989 --> 00:01:57,875 The TMP in this case is a relative file name. It's relative to my 22 00:01:57,875 --> 00:02:02,760 current directory, and it will remove the TMP directory that I previously copied. 23 00:02:04,079 --> 00:02:10,650 Okay, so let's use RM RF no preserve root and how well is 24 00:02:10,650 --> 00:02:17,219 that doing? Well, that's not doing so well because I'm getting permission denied. 25 00:02:18,599 --> 00:02:22,500 Still, it's risky business because I can't be sure that I didn't 26 00:02:22,500 --> 00:02:26,400 wipe my home directory. But fortunately my home directory still exists. 27 00:02:26,919 --> 00:02:31,180 So why did this command not work? Well, because of privileges. And if I really 28 00:02:31,180 --> 00:02:35,439 wanted it to work, then I needed to put sudo in front of it. 29 00:02:36,620 --> 00:02:43,500 But really, I can hardly imagine any reason why it makes sense to remove the entire root file system. 30 00:02:44,520 --> 00:02:51,129 Maybe it's more fun if you make that RM rif and oh, that should do it in an interactive way. 31 00:02:51,629 --> 00:02:55,900 But for some funny reason the interactivity doesn't work too well. 32 00:02:56,530 --> 00:03:00,659 Okay, let's try the interactivity MKDIR new and 33 00:03:00,659 --> 00:03:04,789 CD new and I'm using touch file. 34 00:03:06,610 --> 00:03:11,650 Then arrange with the curly braces. One up to 1 million. 35 00:03:12,250 --> 00:03:13,039 Does that really work? 36 00:03:14,090 --> 00:03:18,665 And Ah, too bad. The argument list is too long. So apparently there's only a limited 37 00:03:18,665 --> 00:03:23,240 number of files that you can use that you can address this way. But this. 38 00:03:23,319 --> 00:03:29,636 This is working better. I just created 1000 files, so RM minus I on Star is going to 39 00:03:29,636 --> 00:03:35,953 prompt for every single one of them. And of course I don't want to do that, so RM 40 00:03:35,953 --> 00:03:42,270 F on Star will clean it up and that is how you can use the RM command.