Terminal command to delete a folder filed with locked files?

[iBookG4user]

I was helping a friend by reformatting his pc and reinstalling windows because it was slow, when I was downloading the drivers for it on my MacBook Pro (didn't have access to the router since it's downstairs and his pc didn't have a wireless card), it downloaded a folder filled with locked files, it comes several folders deep and all of the files are locked, fun. So I tried to delete it using sudo rm -r, but it says I don't have sufficient privileges, anyone know a command I can use to delete it all? I'd rather not do it by hand, that'd take forever.

 

[theBB]

You have to unlock the files and the folders first. This article might help:

http://www.macosxhints.com/article.php?story=20031017061722471&query=locked+files


I guess you will probably have to use one or both of these commands:

chflags nouchg Folder_Name

to unlock the folder (if the folder is locked as well) and


chflags nouchg Folder_Name/*

to unlock the files in the folder

 

[mkrishnan]

So I tried to delete it using sudo rm -r

No, I think you just need to add an f -- the r makes it recursive (so it can delete a folder and files); the f overrides permissions.

sudo rm -rf

I don't think there should be anything deleterious resulting from doing that. Just be careful to rm -rf the right thing -- there aren't any limits to what it can delete.

 

[iBookG4user]

No, I think you just need to add an f -- the r makes it recursive (so it can delete a folder and files); the f overrides permissions.

sudo rm -rf

I don't think there should be anything deleterious resulting from doing that. Just be careful to rm -rf the right thing -- there aren't any limits to what it can delete.

Thanks, that worked!

 

[Cromulent]

You need to have -d to remove a directory.

so:

sudo rm -rfd /yourfolder/

will make it go away, no problems or questions asked

-rf is sufficient. No need for the -d switch.

 

[OutThere]

-rf is sufficient. No need for the -d switch.

My mistake...I never tried deleting directories without the -d so I thought it was necessary...thanks!

 

[mkrishnan]

My mistake...I never tried deleting directories without the -d so I thought it was necessary...thanks!

I think you use the d switch if you want to delete an empty directory? But I'm not even sure about that. Maybe I'm confabulating from the days of rmdir nonsense.

EDIT: I read back on the -d flag. According to the man page, -d unlinks even non-empty directories when a superuser does it (meaning that sudo rm -df should delete a non-empty directory). I'm a little confused about any consequences for not unlinking the internal files individually, i.e. if there is any adverse impact of sudo rm -df vs. sudo rm -rf. In any event, though, -rf seems safer, since it does actually bother to delete each file.

 

[chkdg8]

Just a quick question. When you rm a file through terminal, does it just skip the trash all together?

 

[angelwatt]

Just a quick question. When you rm a file through terminal, does it just skip the trash all together?

Yes.

 

[chkdg8]

Yes.

Thank you angelwatt. I just wanted to know the ins and outs of proper file removal and or deletion because I was doing Empty Trash Securely for the past six months. Although this process takes an extremely long time with large files, I went back to trashing normally because 1. I'm the only user and 2. I don't have ultra secret NSA files on my mac that requires secure deletion. Now that I know that a deleted file's space will eventually get erased by something else, I'm all good in knowing that terminal deletes just as good.

 

[angelwatt]

Thank you angelwatt. I just wanted to know the ins and outs of proper file removal and or deletion because I was doing Empty Trash Securely for the past six months. Although this process takes an extremely long time with large files, I went back to trashing normally because 1. I'm the only user and 2. I don't have ultra secret NSA files on my mac that requires secure deletion. Now that I know that a deleted file's space will eventually get erased by something else, I'm all good in knowing that terminal deletes just as good.

In case you ever need it there's also a srm command that does a secure removal, which is the same as a secure empty trash, I think. Do a "man srm" to see the other options, like for using only a 1-pass or 7-pass erase rather than the default 35-pass, which is overkill for most people.

 

[Notsmart]

Cannot Delete Folder

I was unzipping files I had copied from a CD-ROM and had to abort midstream. I now have the incomplete files on my flash drive and cannot delete them. The individual files are locked, and I can delete them individually, but that would take forever. I emptied a few folders of the files, but I cannot delete the folders. The folders do not indicate they are locked when I press command+I. I tried sudo rm -rf. The first time, it asked for a password so I entered my admin password, but nothing happened. I tried it again, even adding the -d switch, but now the message is:

rm: illegal option -- /
usage: rm [-f | -i] [-dPRrvW] file ...
unlink file

How can I get rid of these folders? I cannot reformat the flash drive because I have several other files on it that I need. THANK YOU!!!!