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Linux: Delete empty directories

You have loads of empty directories to delete in Linux? There is a command for that!

How to list empty directories in Linux?

With the command find . -type d -empty -print .. run it in the top level directory you’re interested in cleaning

Go to the directory in which you want to clean empty directories, and start with the following command that allows to list them :

find . -type d -empty -print

You’ll get an output such as:

root@hurricane:~# find . -type d -empty -print
./.config/htop
./test
./.cache/composer/files/phpoption/phpoption
./.cache/composer/files/ovh/ovh
./.cache/composer/files/phpdocumentor/phpdocumentor
./.cache/composer/files/phpdocumentor/reflection
./.cache/composer/files/phpdocumentor/fileset
./.cache/composer/files/phpdocumentor/graphviz

Now if that is fine with you , the same command with a slight variation:

find . -type d -empty -delete

And there you go you’ve recusirvely deleted empty folders

Tested on Debian Stretch (9)

This post is also available in fr_FR.

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