In the Linux operating system, both the rmdir command and the rm command are delete commands, and they are also one of the very commonly used basic commands. Although they are both delete commands, they are different. So what is the difference between the rmdir command and the rm command in Linux? The following is the specific content introduction.
In Linux, rmdir and rm are commands used to delete directories, but there are some differences between them.
rmdir: The rmdir command is used to delete empty directories. If the directory is not empty, rmdir will fail to delete the directory and display an error message. Therefore, rmdir is mainly used to delete empty directories that do not contain any files or subdirectories.
rm: The rm command is used to delete files and directories, it is more powerful and flexible. rm can delete single files, multiple files, and non-empty directories. When using rm to remove a directory, the recursive option -r must be used so that the directory and all its contents are removed.
The main differences are as follows:
rmdir can only delete empty directories, while rm can delete files and non-empty directories.
The speed of rmdir to delete directories is usually faster than rm, because it only needs to delete the records of the directory itself, and does not need to process the files in the directory. rm can use the recursive option -r or -R to remove directories and all their contents, including files and subdirectories within them.
Be careful when using these two commands, especially when deleting directories. Since the rm command does not have a verification step, accidental deletion may result in unrecoverable data loss. To avoid accidental deletion of important files, make sure to double-check the command parameters when using the rm command, and it is best to make a backup before executing it.