rm(1) manual page
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rm, rmdir - remove directory entries
/usr/bin/rm [-f]
[-i] file...
/usr/bin/rm -rR [-f] [-i] dirname...[file...]
/usr/xpg4/bin/rm [ -fiRr ] file...
/usr/bin/rmdir
[-ps] dirname...
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The rm command removes the directory entry specified by
each file argument. 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. Users do not
need write permission to remove a symbolic link, provided they have write
permissions in the directory.
If multiple files are specified and removal
of a file fails for any reason, rm will write a diagnostic message to
standard error, do nothing more to the current file, and go on to any
remaining files.
If the standard input is not a terminal, the command will
operate as if the -f option is in effect.
The rmdir command will remove
the directory entry specified by each dirname operand, which must refer
to an empty directory.
Directories will be processed in the order specified.
If a directory and a subdirectory of that directory are specified in a
single invocation of rmdir, the subdirectory must be specified before the
parent directory so that the parent directory will be empty when rmdir
tries to remove it.
The following options apply to rm:
- -f
- Remove 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.
- -f
- Do not prompt for
confirmation. Do not write diagnostic messages or modify the exit status
in the case of non-existent operands. Any previous occurences of the -i
option will be ignored.
- -i
- Interactive. With this option,
rm prompts for confirmation before removing any files. It overrides the
-f option and remains in effect even if the standard input is not a terminal.
- -i
- Prompt for confirmation. Any occurences of the -f option
will be ignored.
- -r
- Recursively remove directories and subdirectories in
the argument list. The directory will be emptied of files and removed. The
user is normally prompted for removal of 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.
- Symbolic links that are encountered with
this option will not be
- traversed.
- 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.
- -R
- Same as -r option.
The following
options apply to rmdir:
- -p
- Allow users to remove the directory dirname and
its parent directories which become empty. A message is printed on the standard
error about whether the whole path is removed or part of the path remains
for some reason.
- -s
- Suppress the message printed on the standard error when
-p is in effect.
The following operand is supported:
- file
- A path
name of a directory entry to be removed.
- dirname
- A path name of an empty
directory to be removed.
The following command: example% rm a.out
core
removes the directory entries: a.out and core.
The following command:
example% rm -rf junk
removes the directory junk and all its contents, without
prompting.
If a directory a in the current directory is empty except
it contains a directory b and a/b is empty except it contains a directory
c,
example% rmdir -p a/b/c
will remove all three directories.
See
environ(5)
for descriptions of the following environment variables that
affect the execution of rm and rmdir: LC_COLLATE
, LC_CTYPE
, LC_MESSAGES
,
and NLSPATH
.
The following exit values are returned:
- If the -f
option was not specified, all the named directory entries were removed;
otherwise, all the existing named directory entries were removed.
- >0
- An error
occurred.
rmdir(2)
, unlink(2)
, environ(5)
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 .*
A -- permits the user to mark explicitly
the end of any command line options, allowing rm to recognize file arguments
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 file.
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