Windows equivalent of rm -rf [Don't want to delete parent directory]

Question

I am doing the same as described here i.e. In my batch file, I am using rmdir E:\docs\music /S /Q to delete all the content including sub directories too but it is removing parent directory music also which I don't want.
Do I need to run mkdir everytime?

`rmdir E:\docs\music\* /S /Q` is showing `The filename, directory name, or volume label syntax is incorrect.` — ravi, Oct 15 '12 at 19:11

score 3 · Answer 1 · answered Oct 15 '12 at 19:14

3

If you cd into E:\docs\music then execute rmdir E:\docs\music /S /Q everything will be deleted under music but not the music directory itself.

answered Oct 15 '12 at 19:14

Chimera

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When I tried it, `music` was also gone. – Daniel Chin Jul 13 '23 at 01:44

score 2 · Accepted Answer · answered Oct 15 '12 at 19:11

Single line solution uses for to produce a list of the inner directories :

for /f %i in ('dir /ad /b music') do @rmdir /s /q music\%i

You must escape the % if you put that line in a batch file, like this :

for /f %%i in ('dir /ad /b music') do @rmdir /s /q music\%%i

Windows equivalent of rm -rf [Don't want to delete parent directory]

2 Answers2