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James Page
James Page
9,621 Points
Posted by James Page
James Page
9,621 Points

Why rm and not rmdir?

I tried using rmdir -r .git, but was told it was wrong. I went with rm -r .git in the end, but I'm wondering why rmdir is not valid?

2 Answers

Zuhayr Elahi
Zuhayr Elahi
2,582 Points
Zuhayr Elahi
Zuhayr Elahi
2,582 Points

I do believe its because rmdir only removes an empty directory. If you run the command 'man rmdir', it will open up a page describing what rmdir does and it also lists the commands present when running rmdir. when you open the page, there is no '-r' option.

Now why you have to use 'rm -r'. Rm as we know removes files. In the end a directory is a file to store other files. (In fact for fun, you can use vi to open the directory).

Therefore this is why rmdir doesn't work.

There is no -r option It only works for empty directories. I hope this helps. Let me know if you need anything else

James Page
James Page
9,621 Points
James Page
James Page
9,621 Points

Thanks - presumably .git isn't an empty directory, then (this was my assumption). I should go and look for myself...

Zuhayr Elahi
Zuhayr Elahi
2,582 Points
Zuhayr Elahi
Zuhayr Elahi
2,582 Points

Nope haha. Actually git is really interesting. I was reading about about it from a book I found called the Architecture of Open Source Systems. Here is a link to it if you want to read for yourself: http://aosabook.org/en/git.html

its actually really interesting.

And your .git folder is the real repository . So that's why you don't want to delete it. I hope this helps and that's a good resource I would suggest reading if you have time =)

James Page
James Page
9,621 Points
James Page
James Page
9,621 Points

Thank you. Another item added to my Pocket reading list!