Remove a directory in Linux: a simple guide

If you want to delete all files in a folder, it’s more practical to simply delete the entire directory. This saves you a lot of time, as you don’t need to select every individual file. This also lets you remove all subdirectories in the folder. Linux gives you many different solutions to quickly and easily remove a Linux directory.

The simplest way to delete a Linux directory is by using the file manager.

1. In the file manager, go to the directory that you want to remove.
2. Right-click on the directory and then click ‘Move to trash’ in the menu that opens.

Sometimes, certain directories need administrator rights for you to delete them. Depending on the file manager you use, it might ask you if it should delete the directory using admin rights, just like Windows would. If the file manager doesn’t ask you this, you have to launch it with the commands ‘sudo’ or ‘su’ in Terminal. This will automatically grant you admin rights in the graphical file manager.

3. You can use the command ‘rm -r’ (short for ‘remove’) followed by the name of the directory to delete the whole folder and all of its contents.

As is the case with the file manager, some directories can only be deleted through the Terminal if you have admin rights. In this case, change to a root user in the command line by typing ‘su’ and your root password. If you don't want to change user, you can also enter the following command to delete a Linux directory using admin rights: