rmbrr

Windows efficient rmdir with cross-platform compatibility.

Performance

Windows

Benchmark on node_modules (28,434 files, 5,122 directories, 350 MB):

| Method | Time | vs rmbrr | |---------------------|-----------|----------| | rmbrr | 1,780ms | 1.00x | | rimraf | 3,175ms | 1.78x slower | | PowerShell | 6,824ms | 3.83x slower | | cmd rmdir | 6,422ms | 3.61x slower | | cmd del+rmdir | 7,175ms | 4.03x slower | | robocopy /MIR | 9,528ms | 5.35x slower |

Linux (Ubuntu, WSL)

Benchmark on node_modules (28,268 files, 5,124 directories, 446 MB):

| Method | Time | vs rmbrr | |---------------------|-----------|----------| | rmbrr | 192ms | 1.00x | | rimraf | 660ms | 3.44x slower | | rm -rf | 711ms | 3.70x slower |

Test system: 16-core CPU, SSD. Default thread count (CPU cores).

MacOS (ARM)

Benchmark on node_modules (28,340 files, 5,126 directories, 413 MB):

| Method | Time | vs rmbrr | |---------------------|-----------|----------| | rmbrr | 1,170ms | 1.00x | | rimraf | 1,270ms | 1.09x slower | | rm -rf | 3,000ms | 2.56x slower |

Test system: 2020 M1 Macbook Pro, SSD. Default thread count (CPU cores).

Installation

npm

npm install -g rmbrr
# or use directly
npx rmbrr ./node_modules

Homebrew (macOS/Linux)

brew tap mtopolski/tap
brew install rmbrr

Cargo

cargo install rmbrr

Install script (Unix/Linux/macOS)

curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/mtopolski/rmbrr/main/install.sh | sh

Install script (Windows)

iwr -useb https://raw.githubusercontent.com/mtopolski/rmbrr/main/install.ps1 | iex

Pre-built binaries

Download from releases.

Usage

# Delete a directory
rmbrr path/to/directory

# Multiple directories
rmbrr dir1 dir2 dir3

# Dry run (scan only, don't delete)
rmbrr -n path/to/directory

# Ask for confirmation
rmbrr --confirm path/to/directory

# Show progress, completion, and timing
rmbrr --verbose path/to/directory

# Show detailed statistics
rmbrr --stats path/to/directory

# Specify thread count
rmbrr --threads 8 path/to/directory

# Force deletion of current working directory (use with caution)
rmbrr --force path/to/directory

Safety

rmbrr includes built-in safety checks to prevent accidental system damage:

Always Protected (cannot be deleted even with --force)

• System directories (C:\Windows, /bin, /usr, etc.)
• Drive roots (C:\, /, etc.)
• User home directory ($HOME, %USERPROFILE%)

Requires --force flag

• Current working directory or its parents

All other paths can be deleted without restriction.

How it works

Windows (POSIX semantics)

• POSIX delete semantics via SetFileInformationByHandle with FILE_DISPOSITION_FLAG_POSIX_SEMANTICS
• Immediate namespace removal (files can be deleted while in use)
• Ignores readonly attributes automatically
• Direct Windows API calls (FindFirstFileExW for enumeration)
• Parallel deletion with dependency-aware scheduling
• Bottom-up traversal (delete files/subdirs before parent dirs)
• Long path support (\?\ prefix)

Unix/Linux

• Standard library remove_file/remove_dir calls
• Same parallel deletion architecture

Requirements

• Windows: Windows 10 1607+ with NTFS filesystem
• Unix/Linux: Any modern system

License

MIT OR Apache-2.0