3.3.2.2.4. Removing files
Use the rm command to remove single files, rmdir to remove empty directories. (Use ls -a to check whether a directory is empty or not). The rm command also has options for removing non-empty directories with all their subdirectories, read the Info pages for these rather dangerous options.
How empty can a directory be?
It is normal that the directories . (dot) and .. (dot-dot) can't be removed, since they are also necessary in an empty directory to determine the directories ranking in the file system hierarchy.
On Linux, just like on UNIX, there is no garbage can - at least not for the shell, although there are plenty of solutions for graphical use. So once removed, a file is really gone, and there is generally no way to get it back unless you have backups, or you are really fast and have a real good system administrator. To protect the beginning user from this malice, the interactive behavior of the rm , cp and mv commands can be activated using the -i option. In that case the system won't immediately act upon request. Instead it will ask for confirmation, so it takes an additional click on the Enter key to inflict the damage:
mary:~> rm -ri archive/
rm: descend into directory 'archive'? y
rm: descend into directory 'archive/reports'? y
rm: remove directory 'archive/reports'? y
rm: descend into directory 'archive/backup'? y
rm: remove 'archive/backup/sysbup200112.tar'? y
rm: remove directory 'archive/backup'? y
rm: remove directory 'archive'? y
We will discuss how to make this option the default in Chapter 7 , which discusses customizing your shell environment.
