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Hello the beautiful people.

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And welcome to this video where we're going to be finishing off our discussion of how to delete files

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and directories using the command line.

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So in this video you're going to learn how to use the R, m and RMD commands to delete folders.

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And by the end of this video you'll know pretty much everything you need to know about deleting files

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and folders using the command line.

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So let's go ahead and get right into it.

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All right, so let's start off by creating a folder in our home directory called Dell Folder.

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So if I use the mkdir command and type del folder, we'll see that we created a new folder inside our

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home directory called del folder.

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So let's remove it.

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Okay.

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Now all we have to do actually to remove it is use the r m command again.

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So if I use r m and use del folder and press enter.

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We actually get an error.

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Now, this is because yes, we will use the RGM command, but in order for the command to remove folders,

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we need to give the r m command the r option.

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Now the R option stands for recursive or recursively.

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Now, if you delete something recursively, that means that your delete that thing and everything else

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inside of it.

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So if we try that now our M slash R and then del folder and press enter, we'll see.

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Now that del folder has indeed been deleted.

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So let's make it again.

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Make it again.

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Let's make Del folder and let's make some more folders inside of it.

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So we're going to use brace expansion for this.

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Now we can do make make directory del folder and inside there we're going to make three folders called

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delete me one, two and three.

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Okay.

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So if I press enter and take a look at Del folder, we can see we've got delete me one, delete me two

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and delete me three.

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So that's how this work we made first it made delete me one inside of Del folder, then it may delete

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me too.

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Then it made delete me three.

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So that's brace expansion again.

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So let's make some files inside each of those.

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So if we touch del folder, delete me, delete me, one, two and three and then inside of there, make

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file one, two and three.

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And now if we take a look we can see and delete me one.

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We've got far one, two and three in delete me two file one, two and three and then delete me three.

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We've got file one, two and three.

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So now if we, if we go ahead and if we just look, we've got Del folder here, we've got Del folder

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in our home directory.

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Now if we use our M with the R option to delete that del folder, remember to delete something recursively

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means to delete it and everything else inside of it.

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So if I use our M with the R option and give it del folder and press enter, we'll see.

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That del folder has indeed been deleted and so is everything else inside of it.

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Now one thing you might notice is that the r m command, when it did that, it actually didn't give

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us any warning.

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It just went ahead and deleted everything inside the del folder folder.

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Okay.

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Now because of this, our m dash r m with the r option is a very powerful command that should be dealt

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with very carefully, especially when you start using the star wild card as well.

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All things can go wrong and you can find yourself just deleting everything and not being able to get

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your files back, which is sad, sad times.

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So for example, if I do go ahead and do that now, if I just delete that on everything on our system

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right now, I'm not going to do it.

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I'm joking.

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So one way to make the r m command safer is actually to give it the AI option.

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So the AI option stands for interactive and this will make the r m command ask you interactively whether

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to delete each file or not.

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Now, at the moment we don't have we don't have the del folder anymore.

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So to make del folder and delete me one, two and three all at once, I'm going to use the mkdir command.

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Give it the p option which allows you to create an entire path and do delta and tell it.

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Create delete me one, two and three.

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So if I do that actually not del two sorry del folder then if I do that I get del folder inside there

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delete me one, delete me two and delete me three.

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Kind of call right now let's create the files inside there.

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So del folder forward slash delete me one, two and three and we're going to make file one, two and

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three.

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And so each of those and inside each of those, we've got our files back.

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So there we are.

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Didn't take too long at all.

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We've got our files back.

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By the way, can you see just how much quicker this is than pointing and clicking?

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We created all of those files without ever even needing to enter the folders.

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We just created them right from our home directory.

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So, so cool.

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So now if we try to delete everything again, try and delete del folder by giving VRM Command the R

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and I options.

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It doesn't matter which order you do it.

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So we give it del folder.

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We'll see that now it's asking permission for us to actually delete things.

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So it's saying Can I go into Del folder?

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Let's tell it.

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Yes, it will now say can I go into delete me one.

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Let's say yes and can I delete a file too.

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Yes, you can kind of delete file three.

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Yes, you can.

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Can I delete file one inside.

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Delete me one.

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Yes, you can.

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Can I remove the directory.

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Delete me one.

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Yes you can.

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Can I go into delete me three.

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You see it's not particularly doing it in any order, but it's asking you before it does it.

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Okay, so let's say yes, you can delete that.

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You can delete that, you can delete that.

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Now let's leave.

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Let's leave file two inside delete me two.

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So it's going to leave.

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Delete me three.

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Going to delete me two.

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No, don't delete file.

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Two.

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Yes.

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Delete file three.

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Yes.

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Delete file one.

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No, don't delete the entire folder.

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No, don't delete Dell folder and that's it.

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So if we look inside Dell folder, which is C, delete me two and file two still left over.

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Okay.

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So that's quite cool.

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Right.

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You can control what the r command deletes, but this is kind of tedious, right?

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Saying yes and no every time it's if you had a lot of files that would that would really be a massive

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hassle.

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So fortunately, there's another command that's specialized for only removing directories that are empty

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now because this command only removes empty directories.

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This means that you can tell it to delete everything.

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It will only delete the folders that are actually empty, which means you'll never delete a file accidentally.

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And that command is called the MDR, the remove directory command.

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So to see the Remove Directory command in action first let's go ahead and delete everything inside Dell

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folder.

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So remove recursively Dell folder and there we are.

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Dell folder is been deleted.

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Now let's go ahead and create some folders.

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So we're going to use mkdir with the P option to create a let's call it Dell folder and then folder

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1 to 3.

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That's another way of doing it.

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By the way, you don't have to type one, comma two, comma three, you can just do 1.3.

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And if we look in Dell folder, we've got folder one, folder two and folder three.

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Okay, and let's put ten folders inside folders one and two, but not in folder one, not in folder

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three.

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So that's two touch dell folder folder one, two and then put inside there file 1 to 10 txt.

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So if we look inside folder one, we've now got ten text files.

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We'll look inside folder two, we've got ten text files, but in folder three we don't have any.

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So now that we've got three folders inside Dell folder folders, want a folder to have ten files in

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them, but folder three is completely empty.

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Now if I try to do remove directory and I say remove directory dell folder slash everything.

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Okay, what we're saying here is delete everything inside dell folder, delete the empty folders inside

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Dell folder basically.

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So if I do that, we'll see.

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It failed to remove folder one because the directory is not empty.

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It failed to remove folder two because the directory is not empty, but folder three has indeed been

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deleted.

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So just so you know, this wouldn't have worked if we just done remove directory of Dell folder without

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putting the star.

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So you see we've got the star asterisk wildcard here.

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If we just had removed Dell folder, the shell will say but Dell folder is not empty.

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How can I just delete it?

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But what we did is we said remove everything that is inside Dell folder that is empty.

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So we had to have the star there to make that work.

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So that's just something to bear in mind.

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Okay.

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So as one final challenge, in the last video, we created a project folder that had a whole bunch of

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other folders inside with like a bajillion files.

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Okay, you must remember this from, like, the last few videos.

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Now, what I want you to do is I want you to try and delete all of those folders and directories and

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files and stuff in one command.

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So that's your challenge?

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You that's your challenge.

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You've got to try and delete that entire project folder with everything inside of it.

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All the thousands of files in one command.

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So pause the video now and see if you can figure it out.

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Figure out how to do it.

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Then come back and see how you did.

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Did you manage it?

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If so, well done.

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You learn super, super quick.

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So here's how I do it.

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Now, the folder was called Project.

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It was on the desktop.

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So let's shift there.

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It's it's called Project.

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So we want to delete everything.

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So we don't want to use the RMD command because that only deletes empty directories.

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We want to use the r m command instead because we want to delete directories that have stuff in them.

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Now we want to delete the project folder and everything inside it.

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So we need to delete recursively.

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So to do that we're going to use the R option and putting that all together basically means we'll just

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do remove recursively the project folder.

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Or if I was in my home directory like this, I would do remove recursively desktop slash project just

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giving the path to that folder.

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And when I press enter as if by magic, however many folders there were, the thousands of files have

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been deleted.

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How absolutely epic is that?

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So that'll just about wrap up our discussion of deleting files and folders using the command line.

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So in this video you learn that the r m command needs the R option in order to delete folders, and

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the R option stands for recursive deleting.

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So to delete something recursively means to delete that thing and everything else inside it.

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And this is why you need to be especially careful when using the R option because you can end up deleting

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stuff that you didn't want to.

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Now, one way to make that a bit safer is to use the AI option for the R command, which will allow

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the r m command to be interactive when it does its deleting.

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So this is where you can say yes or no to each file or folder being deleted.

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But the best thing is there's not really much you can rely on.

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Just be careful when doing your deleting.

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Okay.

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But the safest of all options is to use the RMD command which will only delete folders that are empty.

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So if you just want to do a bit of tidying up and delete folders that don't have anything in them,

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you can use the RMD command and rest assured that you won't delete any data.

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So coming up next, we're going to discuss how you might copy and paste files and directories using

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the command line.

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So instead of cutting our file tree, we're going to make it grow.

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So for all that goodness, I'll see you in the next video.