How to safely remove files via SSH or Terminal

Introduction

Once a file or directory is deleted, it can be impossible or, at best, incredibly expensive to recover that data without the use of backups.

If you need to remove or delete files that you are unfamiliar with, use the following technique to mitigate the potential damage.

If you have questions about general administrative tasks such as the one described in this article, please reach out to a systems administrator with the skills, training, and expertise required to assist you with your query.

Procedure

First and foremost create a backup of the account before you make any changes. You can learn how to do  this here:

How to generate a backup of my entire cPanel account from the cPanel interface

Then, log in to the server via SSH or access the Terminal icon either in cPanel or WHM

1. Create a trash folder that will serve as a temporary place to hold files after you remove them:

mkdir -v ~/trash

2. Move the files into the temporary holding location:

mv -v /path/to/files ~/trash

3. If the change is successful and you are positive that  you do not need the files any longer, you can remove  them:

rm -v ~/trash/exampleFile.txt