Removing Directories (rmdir)

Command Equivalents

Description

In PowerShell, rmdir is an alias for the versatile Remove-Item cmdlet. While in Linux rmdir can only delete empty directories, PowerShell’s rmdir can remove both empty and non-empty directories, provided you use the correct parameters.

The most critical concept to understand is the mandatory use of the -Recurse parameter for deleting directories that contain any files or subdirectories.

Common Usage

Removing an Empty Directory

If a directory is empty, you can remove it by simply providing its name. This behavior is identical to the Linux rmdir command.

# Removes the directory 'OldLogs' only if it is empty
rmdir OldLogs

Removing a Non-Empty Directory (The -Recurse Parameter)

If you attempt to use rmdir on a directory that contains items, PowerShell will stop with an error to prevent accidental data loss.

# This command will FAIL if 'MyProject' contains any files or folders
rmdir MyProject

# ERROR: Remove-Item: ...Directory C:\Users\Test\MyProject is not empty.

To successfully remove a directory and all of its contents, you must use the -Recurse parameter. This is the equivalent of rm -r in Linux.

# This will delete the 'MyProject' directory and everything inside it
rmdir MyProject -Recurse

Forcing a Removal

The -Force parameter can be combined with -Recurse to delete directories that have read-only items or to bypass other protections, though this is less common.

# Deletes a directory and its contents, forcing the removal of any read-only items
rmdir MyProject -Recurse -Force