Flags
Now lets go back go the home directory using either cd ~/ or cd ../. Most shells also allow you to simply write cd without any arguments to go to your home.
Let's try and remove the directory we just created. To do this we use the rm <path> command, you might be seeing a naming pattern by now. This is short for remove.
If you try and remove the directory by running rm test_directory it will refuse to do so as it is a directory. To remove directories you need to append a flag. Flags are switches that change the behavior of the program. In our case we need to append the --recursive flag to remove files recursively. This means that if our path is a directory we have to go through the directory and delete all files within that directory as well. Flags are added just after the command like this: rm --recursive <path>. You can add as many flags as you want to but some combinations may not make sense.
[Danger]
The
rmcommand is the only command we are going to use that can be potentially dangerous, especially combined with the--recursive --forceflags. The command will never ask you if you are sure before deleting a file, and it won't go to the trash bin, it will just be gone. Without the--recursiveflag it will never delete more than one file, or delete directories with files in them so it is usually not an issue.
The help flag
Almost all command-line programs include a special flag that will print help information. This is almost always --help.
[Task]
Try and get the help information for ls, what does ls --all do?
[Solution]
It prints all files, even those beginning with a . which are usually hidden.
Short-hand flags
Some commands have single-letter flags which are easier to type. Most programs for example allow you to print -h instead of --help. However, the programs we have used so far do not allow this, it never hurts to try.
[Task]
Using the help flag, what is the short-hand flag for --recursive in rm?
[Solution]
It is -r.