All I want to do is wipe out several files in one directory and several sub directories

In the directory I want to take out the files I do:

Is the above supposed to work? Am I doing it wrong?

this would wipe out the files and the directories but that is not what I want to do.

Thanks

I remove directories and all their contents including any sub-directories with this command.

The -r means remove directories and their contents recursively. The -f means force the option, ignore nonexistent files, never prompt.
Be careful as this doesn't prompt you. if you do
it will traverse down from your root of the filesystem and delete all the directories and files!

- Raj

I don't want to to remove the directories. I know how to do that. I also know about wiping out the entire system with your second command.

I just want to delete several files in one directory and in several sub directories.

If rm won't do it is there a command that will?

"rm" will happily remove whatever you tell it to! Depending on the complexity of what you want to do, it might take several command----or it might involve appending rm to a "find" command.

"rm -r *txt" removes all files ending in "txt" in the current directory--and all subdirectories whose name ends in "txt" (and contents). It will remove--e.g.:
file.txt
dirname_txt and all contents
but not:
dirname/file.txt
dirname/dirname_txt

Try this:
This searches recursively, beginning in the current directory, for all filenames (including directories) in the current directory--and everything below. It will remove (assuming permissions allow) all files named *txt, but NOT directory names ending in txt. (for the latter, it will give an error message)

1 members found this post helpful.

Sweet! nice command sequence.