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Rm command not working

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AssassinTourist Posted messages 409 Registration date   Status Contributor Last intervention   -  
AssassinTourist Posted messages 409 Registration date   Status Contributor Last intervention   -
Hello,

I wanted to delete a non-empty folder (with lots of files and subfolders) and I saw that I needed to use this command (rm -rf folder_to_delete). I proceed carefully as root, it doesn't give me any error messages, yet it doesn't delete my folder. What consideration am I missing?

Thank you in advance for your help!

2 answers

  1.
    zipe31 Posted messages 34620 Registration date   Status Contributor Last intervention   6 501
     
    Hi,

    Be careful with that command as root :-((

    What exactly is the syntax you're typing?
    Add the option "-v" (verbose)...
    Are you providing the correct path?

    --
    Zen my nuggets ;-)
    Do something for the environment, close your windows and adopt a penguin.
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  2. AssassinTourist Posted messages 409 Registration date   Status Contributor Last intervention   1 313
     
    Thank you for trying to help me, but I more or less solved my problem by bluffing.

    So basically, I was being very careful since I was root
    Then I went up above my directory
    I typed rm -rf folder_to_delete (so no paths, but I tried with the full path and it didn't change my problem, so whatever...)

    What I did was I already deleted what was in the directory:
    rm -rf folder_to_delete/* (there, I panicked, so I did a half-path instead of just going into the folder and doing *)
    I was able to see that all my subfolders and files were indeed deleted.
    And finally, I went one level up to do rm -rf folder_to_delete, and there, it deleted correctly.

    But still, I don't understand why it didn't work at first u__u If I run into the problem again, I'll try -v indeed.
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