Unable to delete a folder on Windows with a .git in it

user_14759137 0
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If I start a PowerShell as a regular user (not admin) and run

cd Desktop
mkdir test
cd test
git init
cd ..

I then cant delete the folder via PowerShell. I have tried the following commands as admin and as the current user.

rm -r test                 # -> no access permission
rmdir test                 # -> no access permission
del -r test                # -> no access permission
del test                   # -> no access permission

It prints

 + CategoryInfo          : PermissionDenied: (.git:DirectoryInfo) [Remove-Item], IOException
 + FullyQualifiedErrorId : RemoveFileSystemItemUnAuthorizedAccess,Microsoft.PowerShell.Commands.RemoveItemCommand

But I don't understand why I can't remove folders with a .git folder in them.

powershell windows git
1 Answers

In order to remove [a directory that contains] hidden items, PowerShell's Remove-Item cmdlet requires passing the -Force switch:

Remove-Item -Recurse -Force test

The shortest form of this command (for interactive rather than scripting use), using the platform-neutral ri alias and PowerShell's so-called elastic syntax, where it is sufficient to specify a prefix of a parameter name (such as -r for -Recurse), as long as that prefix is unambiguous):

ri -r -fo test

Note how a two-letter prefix is required for -Force, because -f alone is ambiguous: it could also refer to the -Filter parameter.

  • git init creates a .git subdirectory that is assigned the Hidden attribute on Windows (on Unix-like platforms, the fact that the name starts with . alone makes the directory a hidden one).

  • On Windows, rm, del, rmdir are simply built-in aliases of Remove-Item, the single cmdlet used to remove both files and directories (removal of the latter requiring -Recurse if the directory is not empty).
    (On Unix-like platforms, only del is defined as an aliases, so as not to shadow the platform-native rm and rmdir utilities.)

    • ri is a platform-neutral alias derived from the name Remove-Item, and therefore preferable.

    • To see all aliases defined for a given command use Get-Alias -Definition $name; e.g.:

      Get-Alias -Definition Remove-Item

Note: While it is arguably beneficial for PowerShell to require explicit opt-in via -Force in order to delete hidden items - so that you don't accidentally delete items whose existence you may not be aware of - the error message is suboptimal, in that the problem isn't one of permissions.

user_453750
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