rm(1) USER COMMANDS 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 direc-
tory. 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.
If file is a symbolic link, the link will be removed, but
the file or directory to which it refers will not be
deleted. A user does not need write permission on a symbolic
link to remove it, provided they have write permissions in
the directory.
Note that if the standard input is not a terminal, the com-
mand 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 prompt-
ing 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 direc-
tories 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 any
write-protected files which the directory contains.
The write-protected files are removed without prompt-
ing, however, if the -f option is used, or if the stan-
dard input is not a terminal and the -i option is not
used.
Symbolic links that are encountered with this option
will not be traversed.
If the removal of a non-empty, write-protected direc-
tory is attempted, the command will always fail (even
if the -f option is used), resulting in an error mes-
sage.
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rm(1) USER COMMANDS rm(1)
-i With this option, confirmation of removal of any
write-protected file occurs interactively. It over-
rides 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 dir-
name and its parent directories which become empty. A
message is printed on standard output about 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 speci-
fied directories are removed successfully. Otherwise, they
return a non-zero exit code.
SEE ALSO
unlink(2), rmdir(2) in the Programmer's Reference Manual.
NOTES
A -- permits the user to mark explicitly the end of any com-
mand line options, allowing rm to recognize filename argu-
ments that begin with a -. As an aid to BSD migration, rm
will accept - as a synonym for --. This migration aid may
disappear in a future release. If a -- and a - both appear
on the same command line, the second will be interpreted as
a filename.
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