Table of Contents

NAME

rm - remove files

SYNOPSIS

rm [-dfirvR] [--directory] [--force] [--interactive] [--recursive] [--help] [--version] [--verbose] name...

DESCRIPTION

This manual page documents the GNU version of rm. rm removes each specified file. By default, it does not remove directories.

If a file is unwritable, the standard input is a tty, and the -f or --force option is not given, rm prompts the user for whether to remove the file. If the response does not begin with `y' or `Y', the file is skipped.

GNU rm, like every program that uses the getopt function to parse its arguments, lets you use the -- option to indicate that all following arguments are non-options. To remove a file called `-f' in the current directory, you could type either

rm -- -f

or

rm ./-f

The Unix rm program's use of a single `-' for this purpose predates the development of the getopt standard syntax.

OPTIONS

-d, --directory

Remove directories with `unlink' instead of `rmdir', and don't require a directory to be empty before trying to unlink it. Only works for the super-user. Because unlinking a directory causes any files in the deleted directory to become unreferenced, it is wise to fsck the filesystem after doing this.

-f, --force

Ignore nonexistent files and never prompt the user.

-i, --interactive

Prompt whether to remove each file. If the response does not begin with `y' or `Y', the file is skipped.

-r, -R, --recursive

Remove the contents of directories recursively.

-v, --verbose

Print the name of each file before removing it.

--help

Print a usage message on standard output and exit successfully.

--version

Print version information on standard output then exit successfully.

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Table of Contents

• NAME
• SYNOPSIS
• DESCRIPTION
• OPTIONS