Hi: I'm trying to delete all hidden directories in my home directory. This seems an easy task but all my efforts are vain. Any suggestion?

rm -r .*

don't work ?

more proper way could be

rm -r .*/*
rmdir .*

rmdir won't delete folders if they have anything in them

never needed to do this tbh

It seems 'rm -r .*' works. Though I don't have a cue what's really to be erased. With normal files, I can always do, say 'ls y*' and see the output. Then, just replacing ls by rm I possitively know exactly what will be erased.

will list all the directories/files starting with a period, sometimes called hidden directories/files.

Will delete all hidden directories/files, but prompt you for every deletion as well. Delete only what you wish.

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Try
find ~ -type d -mount -maxdepth 1 -name .\* -ok echo {} \;

if it's all right with echo then you can replace by the dangerous rm -rf

The -mount option doesn't descend into other files systems.

try

echo .*

"*" is for globbing, a shell thing (i think this is called shell expansion, not sure)
think of it as half arsed regex
bdw unlike regex, shell doesn't take "." as any char, "?" means any char in shell

ignore . (this directory) and .. (parent directory) since you can't remove a dir that is in use (you are in it)

PS don't use -f with rm, it's rare when you really have to use it
also as always, take care when not sure 'cuz ".." can give you headaches (weird links also)

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No it won't. "-d" doesn't do what you think it does. It will list any files or directories in the current directory starting with a '.'

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Just a quick question (and not an answer to your question - others have given enough of that):

Just _WHY_ would you want to delete all the dot-files/directories? That's where all your setup is.
That would be like creating a completely new user! (well, almost)

Which is why I never use my home-directory for 'personal' files - dot-files/dirs are not always portable across distros ...

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That is the REAL question.
Anyway, it always good kung.fu to test operations like this, so I advise "echo" before any real rm'ing to "see" what will be removed, first.
Think of it as a "dry run" as there's undo button except for backups, and you have those, right?

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I would politely answer you that's my business. As a side note, "creating" a new user is what it is about.

szboardstretcher said "It will list any directories/files starting with a '.'. I think it's the superior choice. 'ls -d .*' will show exactly what will be erased by 'rm -r .*', because there's only one interpretation of '.*', namely, that of the shell. Hence, typing 'ls -d .*' you can then recall the command from the keyboard buffer (arrow key), press <Home>, delete the first five chars and type 'rm -r', in this way there being no room for typing errors. It would be easier if there would be some means of placing the keyboard in replace mode.

Not when I posted it didn't. If you were paying attention you would have seen that it's been edited since my comment.


Paulo2's "find" solution is the safer choice. The use of ".*" wildcards should be avoided because of their tendency to match the "." and ".." directory links. You may get away with it in the case of 'rm' but you might not be so lucky when used with other commands and end up with unexpected results. IMO the ".*" pattern is dangerous and best avoided completely.

But, as the Paul Simon song goes: "Who am I to blow against the wind."

I suggested find with -mount option because if, for some strange reason,
you mount some device at let's say, ~/.my-hidden-device and you remove
all hidden directories with that device mounted, you will erase it too.



From Graceland? Very good album, I have a vinyl copy

Yep. I first bought it on cassette tape, then again on CD.