When it comes to quickly taking care of daily tasks, the command line can be both powerful and dangerous. Take the commands in this article as an example: the Show
Still, if you want to tap into Terminal’s powers, this is a command you can’t overlook. I’ll show you how to add a safeguard to ensure that you only delete files you really want to delete. Why bother deleting files with the command line?Deleting files with the Finder isn’t too difficult, plus you can always fish files out of the Trash if you change your mind. So why bother using the command line? Here are some reasons:
How to delete filesIt’s dangerously easy to delete files with the
When you press Return, the file will go poof! The Mac doesn’t confirm if you want to delete the file. It will be gone, toast, history. You can’t get it back. You can even delete multiple files in a single command. If you have three files on your Desktop that you want to delete, and you want to delete them all at once, you can do so like this (if you have a file name with spaces, you need to put the name in quotes:
Again, pressing the Return key does the dirty work. It’s worth repeating: this command deletes files. It nukes them. You can’t get them back. You can’t click on the Trash icon and retrieve files you’ve accidentally deleted. But there is a safety net: it’s the
Or, in the case of deleting multiple files:
In each case, pressing Return won’t actually activate the IDG In order to proceed, you need to type How to delete empty directories (a.k.a folders)Deleting directories, or folders, is a bit different. If you try to run the You can’t delete a directory using the rm command. IDG There’s a special command for deleting directories:
You can’t use the Note that this command only deletes empty directories. If you want to delete a directory and the files it contains, read on. How to delete everything in a directoryThe For example, let’s say you have a directory full of archives, containing sub-directories and files. Deleting each item individually from the Finder or the command line can take a long time. So just run the command like this:
Remember, this deletion is final. But you can use the
This will ask you to confirm the deletion of each item. This can be annoying, but unless you’re really sure you want to delete all those files, it’s probably best to be safe. Can’t empty Trash in the Finder? Use the TerminalWhen can the In Terminal, type the following:
Then type a space. In the Finder, open the Trash, and then drag the items it contains to the Terminal window. You’ll see one or more files with paths such as /Users/.Trash/file.txt. If there are lots of files, you may find that the resulting list—all on one long line, wrapping in the Terminal window—may be very long. If you’re absolutely sure that you want to delete all these items, press Return. Terminal will empty the Trash. Command line win! IDG Want to learn more? See our articles about navigating the file system with the command line, learning from man pages, and copying and moving files. Author: Kirk McElhearn, ContributorKirk McElhearn (@mcelhearn) writes about Macs, music and more on his blog Kirkville. He also runs Kirk's iTunes Forum, where users can discuss iTunes, iOS devices, music, and more. How do I delete all files on my Mac?From the Apple menu in the corner of your screen, choose System Settings. Click General in the sidebar. Click Transfer or Reset on the right. Click Erase All Content and Settings.
How do you delete thousands of files on a Mac?How to find and delete the biggest files on a Mac. Click the Apple logo and select About This Mac.. Go to the Storage tab and click Manage.. Select Documents in the sidebar.. Use the Large Files tab to see the largest unnecessary files on your Mac. ... . Select a file and click Delete to get rid of it.. How do I completely delete all files?Open the Start Menu and select Settings.. Click Update & Security.. Go to the left-hand side, scroll down and click on Recovery.. From there, go to Reset this PC. ... . A prompt will appear with two options, Keep My Files or Remove Everything. ... . Click the Change settings option.. Turn the Data Erasure toggle switch to on.. How do you select all documents on a Mac?Select all items in a window: Click a window to make it active, then press Command-A.
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