In linux, what is the difference between 'rm -rf' and 'rm -r', both seem to do the same things (delete an entire directory).

Here is a few commands that I ran to test it:

mohammad@mohammad-ThinkPad-E570:~/testerr$ ls mohammad@mohammad-ThinkPad-E570:~/testerr$ mkdir foo1 foo2 mohammad@mohammad-ThinkPad-E570:~/testerr$ touch foo1/main.java foo2/main.java mohammad@mohammad-ThinkPad-E570:~/testerr$ tree . ├── foo1 │   └── main.java └── foo2 └── main.java 2 directories, 2 files mohammad@mohammad-ThinkPad-E570:~/testerr$ rm -r foo1 mohammad@mohammad-ThinkPad-E570:~/testerr$ ls foo2 mohammad@mohammad-ThinkPad-E570:~/testerr$ rm -rf foo2 mohammad@mohammad-ThinkPad-E570:~/testerr$ tree . 0 directories, 0 files mohammad@mohammad-ThinkPad-E570:~/testerr$
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2 Answers

-f option is there to remove the prompts.

-r option is there to work recursively.

Let's say that we have a folder named stackoverflow with the contents of image.jpg otherimage.jpg mydog.doc

Upon typing rm -r stackoverflow terminal may say: rm: descend into write-protected directory 'stackoverflow'? and if you say y it will ask you for new questions.

rm: remove write-protected regular file stackoverflow/image.jpg'? rm: remove write-protected regular file stackoverflow/otherimage.jpg'? rm: remove write-protected regular file stackoverflow/mydog.doc'?

Basically, it will ask every step if you want to do this operation or not.

Now let's try with rm -rf stackoverflow

No questions will be asked this time and, all the content inside the folder is now deleted.

rm -rf ignores non-existent files, and never prompt before removing.

rm -r removes directories and their contents recursively.