RM(1) (Essential Utilities) RM(1)
NAME
rm, rmdir - remove files or directories
SYNOPSIS
rm [-f] [-i] file ...
rm -r [-f] [-i] dirname ... [file ...]
rmdir [-p] [-s] dirname ...
DESCRIPTION
rm removes the entries for one or more files from a
directory. If an entry was the last link to the file, the
file is destroyed. If a file has no write permission and
the standard input is a terminal, the full set of
permissions (in octal) for the file are printed followed by
a question mark. This is a prompt for confirmation. If the
answer begins with y (for yes), the file is deleted,
otherwise the file remains.
When the target is a symbolic link, rm removes the symbolic
link itself, not the file that the link points to.
Note that if the standard input is not a terminal, the
command will operate as if the -f option is in effect.
Three options apply to rm:
-f This option causes the removal of all files (whether
write-protected or not) in a directory without
prompting the user. In a write-protected directory,
however, files are never removed (whatever their
permissions are), but no messages are displayed. If the
removal of a write-protected directory is attempted,
this option will not suppress an error message.
-r This option causes the recursive removal of any
directories and subdirectories in the argument list.
The directory will be emptied of files and removed.
Note that the user is normally prompted for removal of
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RM(1) (Essential Utilities) RM(1)
any write-protected files which the directory contains.
The write-protected files are removed without
prompting, however, if the -f option is used, or if the
standard input is not a terminal and the -i option is
not used.
If the removal of a non-empty, write-protected
directory is attempted, the command will always fail
(even if the -f option is used), resulting in an error
message.
-i With this option, confirmation of removal of any
write-protected file occurs interactively. It
overrides the -f option and remains in effect even if
the standard input is not a terminal.
Two options apply to rmdir:
-p This option allows users to remove the directory
dirname and its parent directories which become empty.
A message is printed on standard output as to whether
the whole path is removed or part of the path remains
for some reason.
-s This option is used to suppress the message printed on
standard error when -p is in effect.
DIAGNOSTICS
All messages are generally self-explanatory.
It is forbidden to remove the files "." and ".." in order
to avoid the consequences of inadvertently doing something
like the following:
rm -r .*
Both rm and rmdir return exit codes of 0 if all the
specified directories are removed successfully. Otherwise,
they return a non-zero exit code.
SEE ALSO
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RM(1) (Essential Utilities) RM(1)
unlink(2), rmdir(2) in the Programmer's Reference Manual.
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