How to Remove Empty and Non-Empty Directories in Linux [Snippets]

Removing a directory in Linux is harder than you think, and it's not uncommon to get errors that look like this:

folder: Directory not empty
folder: is a directory

The confusion comes because rmdir cannot be used to delete a directory with files or folders inside of it.

Remove a Non-Empty Directory in Linux

To remove an unempty directory in Linux, pass the -r flag to rm. -r means recursive, so it deletes everything in a folder, including the folder itself. Replace 'folder' below with your folder's name or location.

rm -r folder

Remove Multiple Non-Empty Directories in Linux

Simply separate the folder names with a space, and use rm -r:

rm -r folder1 folder2 folder3

Remove an Empty Directory

If your directory is empty, with no folders or files in it, then use rmdir:

rmdir folder