RM("1") manual page
Table of Contents
rm - remove files or directories
rm [OPTION]... FILE...
This
manual page documents the GNU version of rm. rm removes each specified file.
By default, it does not remove directories.
If the -I or --interactive=once
option is given, and there are more than three files or the -r, -R, or --recursive
are given, then rm prompts the user for whether to proceed with the entire
operation. If the response is not affirmative, the entire command is aborted.
Otherwise, if a file is unwritable, standard input is a terminal, and the
-f or --force option is not given, or the -i or --interactive=always option is
given, rm prompts the user for whether to remove the file. If the response
is not affirmative, the file is skipped.
Remove (unlink) the FILE(s).
- -f, --force
- ignore nonexistent files, never prompt
- -i
- prompt before every removal
- -I
- prompt once before removing more than three files, or when removing recursively.
Less intrusive than -i, while still giving protection against most mistakes
- --interactive[=WHEN]
- prompt according to WHEN: never, once (-I), or always
(-i). Without WHEN, prompt always
- --one-file-system
- when removing a hierarchy
recursively, skip any directory that is on a file system different from
that of the corresponding command line argument
- --no-preserve-root
- do not treat
‘/’ specially
- --preserve-root
- do not remove ‘/’ (default)
- -r, -R, --recursive
- remove
directories and their contents recursively
- -v, --verbose
- explain what is being
done
- --help
- display this help and exit
- --version
- output version information
and exit
By default, rm does not remove directories. Use the --recursive
(-r or -R) option to remove each listed directory, too, along with all of
its contents.
To remove a file whose name starts with a ‘-’, for example ‘-foo’,
use one of these commands:
- rm -- -foo
- rm ./-foo
Note that if you use rm to remove
a file, it is usually possible to recover the contents of that file. If
you want more assurance that the contents are truly unrecoverable, consider
using shred.
Written by Paul Rubin, David MacKenzie, Richard Stallman,
and Jim Meyering.
Report bugs to <bug-coreutils@gnu.org>.
Copyright
© 2008 Free Software Foundation, Inc. License GPLv3+: GNU GPL version 3 or
later <http://gnu.org/licenses/gpl.html
>
This is free software: you are free to change and redistribute it. There
is NO WARRANTY, to the extent permitted by law.
unlink(1)
, unlink(2)
,
chattr(1)
, shred(1)
The full documentation for rm is maintained as a Texinfo
manual. If the info and rm programs are properly installed at your site,
the command
- info coreutils ’rm invocation’
should give you access to the
complete manual.
Table of Contents