Files and folders can quickly be deleted using graphical tools such as Nautilus and Dolphin, which come standard with Ubuntu / GNOME and Kubuntu / KDE. If you're using your local terminal or connected to a server via SSH, you'll need to use the available command-line tools.

rmdir is a command-line tool specifically designed to remove or delete an empty directory. You can also use rm, a general tool to delete both files and folders, empty or used.

Steps to delete folder from command line in Linux:

  1. Delete empty folder using rmdir. 

    $ rmdir myfolder/ rmdir: failed to remove 'myfolder/': Directory not empty $ rm myfolder/* $ rmdir myfolder

    Content of the folder or directory must be deleted first or else the command will fail.

    More options for rmdir: 

    $ rmdir --help Usage: rmdir [OPTION]... DIRECTORY... Remove the DIRECTORY(ies), if they are empty.        --ignore-fail-on-non-empty                   ignore each failure that is solely because a directory                     is non-empty   -p, --parents   remove DIRECTORY and its ancestors; e.g., 'rmdir -p a/b/c' is                     similar to 'rmdir a/b/c a/b a'   -v, --verbose   output a diagnostic for every directory processed       --help     display this help and exit       --version  output version information and exit  GNU coreutils online help: <https://www.gnu.org/software/coreutils/> Full documentation <https://www.gnu.org/software/coreutils/rmdir> or available locally via: info '(coreutils) rmdir invocation'

  2. Delete files and folders using rm recursively. 

    $ rm myfolder/ rm: cannot remove 'myfolder/': Is a directory $ rm -r myfolder/

    More options for rm: 

    $ rm --help Usage: rm [OPTION]... [FILE]... Remove (unlink) the FILE(s).    -f, --force           ignore nonexistent files and arguments, never prompt   -i                    prompt before every removal   -I                    prompt once before removing more than three files, or                           when removing recursively; less intrusive than -i,                           while still giving protection against most mistakes       --interactive[=WHEN]  prompt according to WHEN: never, once (-I), or                           always (-i); without WHEN, prompt always       --one-file-system  when removing a hierarchy recursively, skip any                           directory that is on a file system different from                           that of the corresponding command line argument       --no-preserve-root  do not treat '/' specially       --preserve-root[=all]  do not remove '/' (default);                               with 'all', reject any command line argument                               on a separate device from its parent   -r, -R, --recursive   remove directories and their contents recursively   -d, --dir             remove empty directories   -v, --verbose         explain what is being done       --help     display this help and exit       --version  output version information and exit  By default, rm does not remove directories.  Use the --recursive (-r or -R) option to remove each listed directory, too, along with all of its contents.  To remove a file whose name starts with a '-', for example '-foo', use one of these commands:   rm -- -foo    rm ./-foo  Note that if you use rm to remove a file, it might be possible to recover some of its contents, given sufficient expertise and/or time.  For greater assurance that the contents are truly unrecoverable, consider using shred.  GNU coreutils online help: <https://www.gnu.org/software/coreutils/> Full documentation <https://www.gnu.org/software/coreutils/rm> or available locally via: info '(coreutils) rm invocation'

  3. Delete write-protected or system folder using sudo. 

    $ rm -r myfolder/ rm: descend into write-protected directory 'myfolder/'? y rm: cannot remove 'myfolder/myfile.txt': Permission denied $ sudo rm -r myfolder/ [sudo] password for user:  $

    Related: How to configure passwordless sudo in Linux