rclone/docs/content/commands/rclone_delete.md

---
title: "rclone delete"
description: "Remove the files in path."
slug: rclone_delete
url: /commands/rclone_delete/
groups: Important,Filter,Listing
versionIntroduced: v1.27
# autogenerated - DO NOT EDIT, instead edit the source code in cmd/delete/ and as part of making a release run "make commanddocs"
---
# rclone delete

Remove the files in path.

## Synopsis


Remove the files in path.  Unlike [purge](/commands/rclone_purge/) it
obeys include/exclude filters so can be used to selectively delete files.

`rclone delete` only deletes files but leaves the directory structure
alone. If you want to delete a directory and all of its contents use
the [purge](/commands/rclone_purge/) command.

If you supply the `--rmdirs` flag, it will remove all empty directories along with it.
You can also use the separate command [rmdir](/commands/rclone_rmdir/) or
[rmdirs](/commands/rclone_rmdirs/) to delete empty directories only.

For example, to delete all files bigger than 100 MiB, you may first want to
check what would be deleted (use either):

    rclone --min-size 100M lsl remote:path
    rclone --dry-run --min-size 100M delete remote:path

Then proceed with the actual delete:

    rclone --min-size 100M delete remote:path

That reads "delete everything with a minimum size of 100 MiB", hence
delete all files bigger than 100 MiB.

**Important**: Since this can cause data loss, test first with the
`--dry-run` or the `--interactive`/`-i` flag.


```
rclone delete remote:path [flags]
```

## Options

```
  -h, --help     help for delete
      --rmdirs   rmdirs removes empty directories but leaves root intact
```


## Important Options

Important flags useful for most commands.

```
  -n, --dry-run         Do a trial run with no permanent changes
  -i, --interactive     Enable interactive mode
  -v, --verbose count   Print lots more stuff (repeat for more)
```

## Filter Options

Flags for filtering directory listings.

```
      --delete-excluded                     Delete files on dest excluded from sync
      --exclude stringArray                 Exclude files matching pattern
      --exclude-from stringArray            Read file exclude patterns from file (use - to read from stdin)
      --exclude-if-present stringArray      Exclude directories if filename is present
      --files-from stringArray              Read list of source-file names from file (use - to read from stdin)
      --files-from-raw stringArray          Read list of source-file names from file without any processing of lines (use - to read from stdin)
  -f, --filter stringArray                  Add a file filtering rule
      --filter-from stringArray             Read file filtering patterns from a file (use - to read from stdin)
      --ignore-case                         Ignore case in filters (case insensitive)
      --include stringArray                 Include files matching pattern
      --include-from stringArray            Read file include patterns from file (use - to read from stdin)
      --max-age Duration                    Only transfer files younger than this in s or suffix ms|s|m|h|d|w|M|y (default off)
      --max-depth int                       If set limits the recursion depth to this (default -1)
      --max-size SizeSuffix                 Only transfer files smaller than this in KiB or suffix B|K|M|G|T|P (default off)
      --metadata-exclude stringArray        Exclude metadatas matching pattern
      --metadata-exclude-from stringArray   Read metadata exclude patterns from file (use - to read from stdin)
      --metadata-filter stringArray         Add a metadata filtering rule
      --metadata-filter-from stringArray    Read metadata filtering patterns from a file (use - to read from stdin)
      --metadata-include stringArray        Include metadatas matching pattern
      --metadata-include-from stringArray   Read metadata include patterns from file (use - to read from stdin)
      --min-age Duration                    Only transfer files older than this in s or suffix ms|s|m|h|d|w|M|y (default off)
      --min-size SizeSuffix                 Only transfer files bigger than this in KiB or suffix B|K|M|G|T|P (default off)
```

## Listing Options

Flags for listing directories.

```
      --default-time Time   Time to show if modtime is unknown for files and directories (default 2000-01-01T00:00:00Z)
      --fast-list           Use recursive list if available; uses more memory but fewer transactions
```

See the [global flags page](/flags/) for global options not listed here.

# SEE ALSO

* [rclone](/commands/rclone/)	 - Show help for rclone commands, flags and backends.