Deleting Dropbox using their directions

I went to the Dropbox Help Center to get their directions on deleting the program. The directions are written in computer code such as:

rm - rf /var/lib/dropbox

I know this means something to some people - not me. So, I worry that I have no idea what I'm typing into the bar, Should I have concerns about using their directions to delete their program?

1 Answer

No that removes the dropbox in your system. Let me explain the code

rm -rf /var/lib/dropbox

• rm: linux remove command
• -rf: options passed to rm command where r stands for recursive [move into subdirectories], and f means remove without asking.
• /var/lib/dropbox: this is the location of the dropbox folder to remove.

To run this command do the following:

1. Open terminal: Ctrl + Alt + t, or click windows button and type terminal

2. Type the commands into the terminal that appears:

   sudo rm -rf /var/lib/dropbox

   • The sudo here elevates your ability and makes it possible for you to delete that folder which only members of the sudo group can and these are owned by the root user. sudo is a program that makes it possibel for you to act like the root user without needing to change to root.

   • To see what you can do as a member of the sudo group run sudo -l and you should see something like this:

     Matching Defaults entries for georgek on georgek-HP-Pavilion-17-Notebook-PC: env_reset, mail_badpass, secure_path=/usr/local/sbin:/usr/local/bin:/usr/sbin:/usr/bin:/sbin:/bin:/snap/bin, log_host, log_year, logfile=/var/log/sudo.log

     User georgek may run the following commands on georgek-HP-Pavilion-17-Notebook-PC: (ALL : ALL) ALL

   • (ALL : ALL) ALL means I can execute any command as any user or any group from any host

     format: user (host)=(user:group) commands.