While trying to delete a directory with "rm -rf", I kept getting "directory not empty". You should now be able to delete the file. all rm commands failed with: can't remove 'sub/sub/sub/sub': Directory not empty I tied to rename some folder to make the path shorter, but it didn't help. Remove append-only attribute. I made sure to use ls -ali, and tried --ignore-fail-on-non-empty with rmdir. Delete contents of a directory but keep the directory. rm -f /tmp/testdir/testfile. For empty directories, use the rmdir command and write --as a separate word before name of the first directory to remove. Run the following: docker info Most likely, you'll see that your storage driver is `overlay`. I deleted one to the Trash (using Nautilus), but could not delete the other, even from the command line. I … sudo chattr -a /tmp/testdir/testfile. But after moving one of the subfolders, I was able to delete … Rather the below commands should do the trick. On some systems with docker using overlay storage driver, it is not possible to remove folder (rm -rf DIR) created in other layer. There were two files (actually directories) with different names, but having the same content. I've run into a issue where I can not delete directories under a user directory. Puzzled, I looked why and I seem to have a "zombie" file stuck in there. [Solved] rm: cannot remove DIRECTORY: Directory not empty I apologize if this has been posted elsewhere, but I have tried everything I can think of. I can do a 'mv' of the dir to another dir. The symlink populated a non-empty directory, but the client was unable to see or stat the symlink for the purpose of clearing out the directory before unlinking the directory. No way! The usecase here is to delete all the contents of the directory but keep the parent directory so that we do not need to create it again. Both fail with rm: cannot remove "backup/backup.1": Directory not empty. https://linuxroutes.com/resolve-rmdir-directory-not-empty-error-linux I'm hoping the community here can help me come up with ideas I haven't thought of. Be very careful with this command, because using the rm -r command will delete not only everything in the named directory, but also everything in its subdirectories. To remove a directory that is not empty, use the rm command with the -r option for recursive deletion. Here is all the information I hope you will need to... (9 Replies) If you see messages like this: rm: cannot remove DIR: Directory not empty. Try delete the folder $ rm -f /tmp/testdir/testfile rm: cannot remove ‘testfile’: Operation not permitted. I have no idea how to delete it. Since it was invisible, it created this paradox where from the client side it was empty but "not empty" upon challenge by rm . rmdir /Q /S does not work here as it deletes the parent directory too. This works same for the immutable attribute (i). On a RHEL 6.10 server there is a mounted NAS where I can't delete directories with neither rm -rf nor rmdir. There are several of these dir now. $ rm -rf ptp/ rm: cannot remove directory ptp/.git': Directory not empty rm: cannot remove directory ptp': Directory not empty And got that: ... An empty .git folder simply would not delete and a restart of windows did not remedy it, nor did rmdir .git, nor did rm -rf .git. ie 'mv sp2456 old/' and it will move the directory, but I can not delete them.