[CLUE-Tech] Need help with rmdir

[Chris K. Chew]

No problem, Gary.  I remember when I learned that rmdir doesn't work like
one would think.  Zonker gave a good warning about using the -f flag...don't
get into the habit of doing it often.

Chris


-----Original Message-----
From: clue-tech-admin at clue.denver.co.us
[mailto:clue-tech-admin at clue.denver.co.us]On Behalf Of Gary Threlkeld
Sent: Monday, May 13, 2002 1:03 PM
To: clue-tech at clue.denver.co.us
Subject: Re: [CLUE-Tech] Need help with rmdir


Thanks Chris - That seems to have been my problem. I knew
it must be a simple answer.

I assumed that to manipulate directories that I had to use
the "rmdir" command and that "rm" could only be used
on individual files within a directory.

Thanks for taking time to help a newbie!

Gary Threlkeld
gthrelk at attbi.com

----- Original Message -----
From: Chris K. Chew
To: clue-tech at clue.denver.co.us
Sent: Monday, May 13, 2002 12:48 PM
Subject: RE: [CLUE-Tech] Need help with rmdir


Try something like:

rm -fR /tmp/dirB

Chris
-----Original Message-----
From: clue-tech-admin at clue.denver.co.us
[mailto:clue-tech-admin at clue.denver.co.us]On Behalf Of Gary Threlkeld
Sent: Monday, May 13, 2002 12:42 PM
To: clue-tech at clue.denver.co.us
Subject: [CLUE-Tech] Need help with rmdir


I have several subdiretories in a tree that need to be deleted.
Because of the number of files/directories I don't want
to delete individually if possible.

Example:
                /tmp
    /dirA                /dirB
                    /dirB1    /dirB2    ...

I want to delete all of branch /tmp/dirB.

I am running RedHat 7.3 and have tried

rmdir -p --ignore-fail-on-non-empty /tmp/dirB

The response is to accept the command, returning
to the command prompt without error but non of the
directories are deleted.

Am I misunderstanding that it is possible to delete
non-empty directories?

Thanks,

Gary Threlkeld
gthrelk at attbi.com