docs/source/includes/common-admonitions.rst

/reference/minio-cli/minio-mc/mc-rm.rst /reference/minio-cli/minio-mc/mc-mv.rst /reference/minio-cli/minio-mc/mc-mirror.rst

relies on the mc removal API for deleting objects. As part of removing the last object in a bucket prefix, mc also recursively removes each empty part of the prefix up to the bucket root. mc only applies the recursive removal to prefixes created implicitly as part of object write operations - that is, the prefix was not created using an explicit directory creation command such as mc mb.

For example, consider a bucket photos with the following object prefixes:

• photos/2021/january/myphoto.jpg
• photos/2021/february/myotherphoto.jpg
• photos/NYE21/NewYears.jpg

photos/NYE21 is the only prefix explicitly created using mc mb. All other prefixes were implicitly created as part of writing the object located at that prefix.

If an mc command removes myphoto.jpg, the removal API automatically trims the empty /january prefix. If a subsequent mc command removes myotherphoto.jpg, the removal API automatically trims both the /february prefix and the now-empty /2021 prefix. If an mc command removes NewYears.jpg, the /NYE21 prefix remains in place since it was explicitly created.

If using for operations on a filesystem, mc applies this same behavior by recursively trimming empty directory paths up to the root. However, the mc remove API cannot distinguish between an explicitly created directory path and an implicitly created one. If deletes the last object at a filesystem path, mc recursively deletes all empty directories within that path up to the root as part of the removal operation.