rm -d...why won´t this remove a directory?

[anthony baldwin]

Colin Watson wrote:
> On Thu, Nov 15, 2007 at 01:10:29PM -0500, anthony baldwin wrote:
>> Shouldn´t "sudo rm -d [directory name] remove a directory?
>> rmdir will only remove empty dirs, and I am trying to remove a dir
>> and it´s contents.
>> I do
>> sudo rm --directory -f music
>> and get
>> rm: cannot remove `music': Is a directory
> 
> As you found out, you want -r. However, to clarify rm's --help output:
> 
>   -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)
> 
> The same rm code works on many kernels, not just Linux, which is why
> this is there; but Linux is not one of the systems that supports
> 'unlink' on directories at all.
> 

Thanks for clearing that up for me.
I was a little confused on that point.

/tony

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