Delete hidden files linux

How to remove hidden files in Linux

/.bashrc is a hidden file in Linux. Hidden files are often known as a dot file. All dot files used for storing user preferences on Linux. Please note that hidden or dot files are not a security mechanism. They exist to reduced “clutter” of the contents of a directory listing.

How to display hidden / dot files in Linux

One an display hidden files by passing the -a option to the ls command. For example:
ls -a
ls -la
ls -l /path/to/.filename

You can add a “/” after directory names in Linux:
ls -F
ls -Fa
One can get a reverse listing:
ls -r
ls -ra
To just display dot/hidden files in Linux use any one of the following command along with grep command/egrep command:
ls -a | egrep ‘^\.’
ls -A | egrep ‘^\.’
ls -l

Command to remove hidden files in Linux

To remove hidden files in Linux, try:
rm .file
rm -i /path/to/.fileName
rm -i /path/to/.dirName
rm -rf /path/to/dir/.*
Of course, you can not delete two individual directories:

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1. . – The current directory indicated by a single dot.
2. .. – The parent directory indicated by two successive dots.

Let us try out:
cd /tmp/
mkdir demo
cd demo
mkdir app
>.config
>.vimrc
>.bashrc
ls -a | egrep ‘^\.’
ls
rm .vimrc
ls -a | egrep ‘^\.’
rm -rfv /tmp/demo/.*

Getting rid of warning message rm: refusing to remove ‘.’ or ‘..’ directory: skipping

Simply add the following 2> /dev/null at the end of the rm command:
rm -rfv /dir/.* 2>/dev/null
rm -rfv /tmp/demo/.* 2>/dev/null
Sample outputs:

/dev/null is nothing but a special file that discards all data written to it. See the following for more info:

How to delete hidden files in Linux

One can use the find command to list or delete hidden files. The syntax is as follows:

A note about the GNOME desktop environment and hidden files

In GNOME’s file manager, the keyboard shortcut Ctrl+H enables or disables the display of hidden files. CTRL+H act as a toggle button to hide or show hidden dot files in the GNOME.

Gif.01: Gnome Hide or show hidden dot files using CTRL+H or options menu

Conclusion

This page explains how to remove hidden files in Linux or Unix-like operating systems. Further, it explained how to redirect output to avoid warning message while using the rm command.

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Linux / UNIX: Bash Find And Delete All Hidden Files Directories

H ow can I find all all hidden files and directories (starting with . character) under UNIX or Linux and delete them using bash or ksh shell?

Use the following command to list all hidden files in /path/to/dest/ directory
$ find /path/to/dest/ -iname «.*» -maxdepth 1 -type f
To list all hidden directories use the following command:
$ find /path/to/dest/ -iname «.*» -maxdepth 1 -type d
To delete all hidden files under UNIX or Linux use the following command:
$ find /path/to/dest/ -iname «.*» -maxdepth 1 -type f -delete
OR
$ find /path/to/dest/ -iname «.*» -maxdepth 1 -type f -exec rm <> \;
To delete all hidden directories under UNIX or Linux use the following command:
$ find /path/to/dest/ -iname «.*» -maxdepth 1 -type d -exec rm -rf <> \;
If you removed -maxdepth 1 it will find all subdirectories and remove them too.

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Comments on this entry are closed.

find /path/to/dest/ -iname “.*” -maxdepth 1 -type f -exec rm <> \;
worked for me… Thanks

this can be very dangerous,
when the /path/to/dest/ is . -iname “.*” will match .
which is probably not what you want.
(with the -exec rm -rf <> \; it could be very very bad)
i tend to use -name “.[^.]*” or -path “*/.*”
depending on whether or not I want to match the contents of the hidden directories.

Command : find /path/to/dest/ -iname “.*” -maxdepth 1 -type f gives me below error :
you have specified the -maxdepth option after a non-option argument -iname, but options are not positional (-maxdepth affects tests specified before it as well as those specified after it)

Use maxdepth option before -iname
$ find /path/to/dest/ -maxdepth 1 -iname “.*” -type f

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Linux Windows Install Setup Configuration Project

Using Linux rm command to delete, remove hidden files and folder — Basic Linux Command.

Step by step example to delete or remove hidden files, folder or directory on Linux Fedora system using rm command.

Using Linux rm command on the bash shell command prompt to delete or remove file, hidden file, folder, hidden folder and meta character filename and folder name on Linux fedora core with example. This article show the step by step guide on delete file or delete folder on Linux system, make sure that the that you understand the rm command before you execute them.

Linux command name: rm

The Linux ‘rm’ command is used to remove or to delete file and directory.

‘file’ disk file (external command) and alias to rm=’rm -i’.

alias l.=’ls -d .* —color=tty’

alias ll=’ls -l —color=tty’

alias ls=’ls —color=tty’

alias mc=’. /usr/share/mc/bin/mc-wrapper.sh’

alias which=’alias | /usr/bin/which —tty-only —read-alias —show-dot —show-tilde’

How to remove or delete a file?

Remove file from or delete file from Fedora system.

rm: remove regular file `install.log’? y

The command above remove/delete the file called » install.log «. Use ls command to confirm the removal/deletion.

How to remove or delete several file?

Remove more that one file in one time.

[root@fedora /]# rm install.log kambing.log secure1.log config.doc passwd

rm: remove regular empty file `install.log’? y

rm: remove regular empty file `kambing.log’? y

rm: remove regular empty file `secure1.log’? y

rm: remove regular empty file `config.doc’? y

rm: remove regular empty file `passwd’? y

rm command also can be used to remove or delete the several file at once, in this example five files ( install.log , kambing.log , secure1.log , config.doc , passwd ) is deleted at one go.

How to remove or delete files that use metacharacter (character that mean something to the shell) as file name?

If you have file or folder name that use metacharacter or characters that mean something to shell, you have to tell the shell prompt so that the shell could interpreted that you want to remove files. Below is some example to remove the metacharacter files:

[root@fedora /]# rm -r ./ *important-file*

rm: remove directory `./*important-file*’? y

rm: remove regular file `-not-important*’? y

[root@fedora /]# rm ‘ happy rock hacking.mp3 ‘

rm: remove regular file `happy rock hacking.mp3′? y

To remove/delete the file that contains a space or character which is used by the shell, in this example;

*important-file* The filename contain ( * )

-not-important* The filename contain ( — ) in the beginning and ( * )

happy rock hacking.mp3 The file name use space

Put a single quotes around them or force it using the current directory sign ( ./ ) or used rm — option.

How to remove or delete all files in current directory?

The example below show the rm command use to delete all file in the current directory.

rm: remove regular file `./install.log.syslog’? y

rm: remove regular file `./#interface#’? y

rm: remove regular file `./izes in human readable format (e.g., 1K 234M 2G)’? y

The rm command above will remove or delete all file except the hidden files in that current directory.

How to remove or delete a directory?

To remove the directory just issue the rm command with the directory name, if the directory is not empty you may get the same massage bellow:

[root@fedora /]# rm fedora/

rm: cannot remove directory `fedora/’: Is a directory

If you know that the directory that you want delete (remove) is not empty and you are sure that you want to remove the directory and all of its contents; issue the rm command with the -r option:

[root@fedora /]# rm -r fedora/

rm: descend into directory `fedora/’? y

rm: remove regular empty file `fedora//passwd.kambing’? y

rm: remove regular empty file `fedora//.exploits’? y

rm: remove regular empty file `fedora//.labu’? y

rm: remove regular empty file `fedora//passwd.log’? y

rm: remove regular empty file `fedora//kambing.log’? y

rm: remove regular empty file `fedora//secure1.log’? y

rm: remove regular empty file `fedora//.SELinux’? y

rm: remove regular empty file `fedora//install.log’? y

rm: remove regular empty file `fedora//config.doc’? y

rm: remove directory `fedora/’? y

The rm command above with –r (recursive) option is to remove or delete the fedora directory and all files and directory that contain in the directory that you want to remove.

How to remove or delete everything in current directory without warning?

Remove all files without any warning from the system ( no message output to the screen).

The rm command above with –rf (recursively and remove or delete write-protected file without prompting) option will remove or delete everything in the current directory without any warning.

WARNING : “ rm –rf * ’ command will remove or / delete everything in current directory except hidden file or directory in that current directory. Make sure that you not in the root directory ( / ) before you issue the command or you could end up with empty and broken Linux box. Be careful, rm command can be a dangerous tool if misused.

How to remove or delete all hidden file or directory without warning?

Remove all file and directory without any output to the screen,

With the option –rf and the use » . * » will remove/delete all hidden files/directory. The initial » . » indicates a ‘hidden’ file and the » ?? » match at least two characters to exclude the parent-directory which is » .. » and to remove or delete everything the » * » will match all number or characters that used for files or directory name.

How to remove or delete file base on (use) its inode / index number?

The example below show the step to delete or remove the file base on the inode number.

Issue the ls command with the -i option to get the inode number for the file.

245243 tat — display file or filesystem status

245274 timate file space usage

245276 ystem disk space usage

Using the find command to find inode number for the file and then pass to the rm command to delete the file base on their inode number.

[root@fedora /]# find . -inum 245243 -exec rm –i <> \;

rm: remove regular file `./tat — display file or filesystem status’? y

Verify to make sure that the file have been remove by using ls command.

timate file space usage

ystem disk space usage

From the example above, the ‘ls –i’ command is used to get the inode number of file or directory then the find command used to search for inode number » 245243 » then give the inode number to rm command to remove or delete the file base on the inode number given..

The following are some of the flags and arguments that can be used with the rm command:

Remove (unlink) the FILE(s).

-d, —directory unlink FILE, even if it is a non-empty directory

(super-user only; this works only if your system

supports `unlink’ for nonempty directories)

-f, —force ignore nonexistent files, never prompt

-i, —interactive prompt before any removal

—no-preserve-root do not treat `/’ specially (the default)

—preserve-root fail to operate recursively on `/’

-r, -R, —recursive remove the contents of directories recursively

-v, —verbose explain what is being done

—help display this help and exit

—version output version information and exit

Note: if you use rm to remove a file, it is possible to recover the contents of that file. If you want more assurance that the contents are truly unrecoverable, consider using shred.

Note:- On Fedora Core using bash shell, the rm command is alias to rm=’rm -i’. The rm is the command to remove files or folder in Linux system but there is no unrm or undelete or unremove command on Linux operating system. So be very careful on what you wish to remove 🙂

Warning: The rm command can do many harm thing to your system, make sure that you double check before executing the rm command.

stat — display file or filesystem status

Usage: rm [OPTION]. FILE.

Need help or need more information use:

Step-by-step how to procedure above tested on:

Operating System: GNU/Linux Fedora Core 4

Kernel Name: Linux

Kernel Release: 2.6.11-1.1369_FC4

Kernel Version: #1 Thu Jun 2 22:55:56 EDT 2005

Machine Hardware: i686

Machine Processor: i686

Hardware Platform: i386

Shell: GNU bash, version 3.00.16(1)-release (i386-redhat-linux-gnu)

Installation Type: Full Installation (Custom)

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