How to Remove Files on Mac and Linux from the Command Line

Introduction

On macOS and Linux, files can be removed from the command line using tools such as rm, find, and grep.

The most common cases are:

• remove one file
• remove several files
• remove files with filenames that contain a specific substring
• remove files whose content contains a specific text pattern

This tutorial shows practical examples that work on both macOS and Linux.

Before deleting files, it is strongly recommended to run a dry check first, especially when using wildcards such as *.

Remove a single file

To remove one file, use:

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rm filename.txt

Example:

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rm data.csv

If the filename contains spaces, wrap it in quotes:

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rm "my file.txt"

You can also use the interactive option -i to ask for confirmation before deleting:

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rm -i data.csv

Example output:

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remove data.csv?

Type y to confirm.

Remove multiple files

To remove several files at once, list them after rm:

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rm file1.txt file2.txt file3.txt

Example:

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rm data_01.csv data_02.csv data_03.csv

With confirmation:

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rm -i data_01.csv data_02.csv data_03.csv

Remove files by extension

To remove all files with a given extension in the current folder, use a wildcard.

For example, to remove all CSV files:

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rm *.csv

Before deleting, it is safer to list the files first:

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ls *.csv

Then remove them:

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rm *.csv

With confirmation:

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rm -i *.csv

Another example, remove all .txt files:

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rm *.txt

Remove files whose filename contains specific text

If you want to remove files because their filename contains a specific substring, use find.

For example, suppose you have files like:

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viirs_efire_fire_pixels_NOAA21_20250321.csv.gz
viirs_efire_skipped_fp_variables_NOAA21_20250321.csv
viirs_efire_tile_statistics_NOAA21_20250321.csv

and you want to remove all files whose filename contains:

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NOAA21_20250321

First, do a dry run:

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find . -type f -name "*NOAA21_20250321*"

Then remove the matching files:

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find . -type f -name "*NOAA21_20250321*" -exec rm {} +

A safer interactive version is:

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find . -type f -name "*NOAA21_20250321*" -exec rm -i {} +

Here:

• . means search from the current directory
• -type f means search only files
• -name "*NOAA21_20250321*" means the filename must contain that substring
• -exec rm {} + removes the matching files

Case-insensitive filename search

To remove files whose filename contains a substring, ignoring uppercase/lowercase differences, use -iname:

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find . -type f -iname "*noaa21_20250321*"

Then remove them:

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find . -type f -iname "*noaa21_20250321*" -exec rm {} +

Interactive version:

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find . -type f -iname "*noaa21_20250321*" -exec rm -i {} +

Remove files whose content contains specific text

If you want to remove files because the inside content contains specific text, use grep first to find the files.

For example, to find files that contain:

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NOAA21_20250321

run:

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grep -rl "NOAA21_20250321" .

Here:

• grep searches text
• -r searches recursively in subfolders
• -l prints only the filenames that contain the matching text
• . means search from the current directory

After checking the list carefully, remove those files with:

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grep -rl "NOAA21_20250321" . | xargs rm

However, this simple version can have problems with filenames containing spaces.

A safer version is:

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grep -rlZ "NOAA21_20250321" . | xargs -0 rm

Interactive version:

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grep -rlZ "NOAA21_20250321" . | xargs -0 rm -i

Portable alternative for files containing text

Another portable approach is to combine find, grep, and rm.

First, preview the files:

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find . -type f -exec grep -l "NOAA21_20250321" {} +

Then remove them:

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find . -type f -exec grep -l "NOAA21_20250321" {} + | xargs rm

For filenames with spaces, use:

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find . -type f -exec grep -l "NOAA21_20250321" {} + | while IFS= read -r file
do
    rm "$file"
done

Interactive version:

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find . -type f -exec grep -l "NOAA21_20250321" {} + | while IFS= read -r file
do
    rm -i "$file"
done

Important difference between filename search and content search

A common mistake is to use grep when searching for filenames.

For example:

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grep -rl "NOAA21_20250321" .

searches inside the files.

It does not search filenames.

To search filenames, use:

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find . -type f -name "*NOAA21_20250321*"

Summary:

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Search in filenames  -> use find
Search inside files  -> use grep
Remove files         -> use rm

Remove files from a specific folder

To search inside a specific folder instead of the current directory, replace . with the folder path.

Example on macOS external drive:

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find /Volumes/HD15TB/Datasets -type f -name "*NOAA21_20250321*"

Then remove matching files:

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find /Volumes/HD15TB/Datasets -type f -name "*NOAA21_20250321*" -exec rm {} +

Example on Linux:

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find /home/user/Datasets -type f -name "*NOAA21_20250321*"

Then remove matching files:

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find /home/user/Datasets -type f -name "*NOAA21_20250321*" -exec rm {} +

Remove files with spaces in their names

If a file has spaces in its name, use quotes:

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rm "my file.txt"

For find, the following syntax safely handles filenames with spaces:

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find . -type f -name "*my text*" -exec rm {} +

Interactive version:

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find . -type f -name "*my text*" -exec rm -i {} +

Remove a file whose name starts with a dash

If a filename starts with -, rm may interpret it as an option.

For example, a file named:

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-test.txt

can be removed using:

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rm -- -test.txt

or:

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rm ./-test.txt

Remove empty directories

To remove an empty directory, use:

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rmdir folder_name

or:

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rm -d folder_name

To remove a directory and everything inside it, use:

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rm -r folder_name

Be careful with recursive removal. Always check the folder path before running rm -r.

Interactive version:

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rm -ri folder_name

Safer workflow before deleting files

A good workflow is:

Step 1: Preview matching files

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find . -type f -name "*NOAA21_20250321*"

Step 2: Remove interactively

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find . -type f -name "*NOAA21_20250321*" -exec rm -i {} +

Step 3: Remove directly only when confident

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find . -type f -name "*NOAA21_20250321*" -exec rm {} +

Practical examples

Example 1: Remove one file

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rm output.csv

Example 2: Remove multiple files

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rm output_01.csv output_02.csv output_03.csv

Example 3: Remove all CSV files in the current folder

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rm *.csv

Example 4: Remove files whose filename contains a date

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find . -type f -name "*20250321*" -exec rm {} +

Example 5: Remove files whose filename contains a satellite name and date

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find . -type f -name "*NOAA21_20250321*" -exec rm {} +

Example 6: Remove files whose content contains specific text

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grep -rlZ "NOAA21_20250321" . | xargs -0 rm

Example 7: Preview files before deleting them

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find . -type f -name "*NOAA21_20250321*"

Example 8: Remove matching files interactively

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find . -type f -name "*NOAA21_20250321*" -exec rm -i {} +

Conclusion

On macOS and Linux, the most useful commands for removing files are rm, find, and grep.

Use rm when you already know the filename:

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rm file.txt

Use find when the filename contains a specific substring:

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find . -type f -name "*substring*" -exec rm {} +

Use grep when the file content contains specific text:

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grep -rlZ "text" . | xargs -0 rm

The safest habit is to always preview the matching files first, then delete them.

References