To delete all content in any directory, including all sub-directories and files, I’ve been using this:
rm -rf somedir/*
If it is to delete all content of the current directory:
rm -rf *
However, it turns out ‘rm -rf’ doesn’t remove hidden files such as .htaccess (Files with a name starting with a dot are hidden in Linux). To delete all the hidden files as well, I have to run a 2nd command:
rm -rf .??*