RM
Section: User Commands (1)
Updated: December 2009
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NAME
rm - remove files or directories
SYNOPSIS
rm
[OPTION]... FILE...
DESCRIPTION
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.
OPTIONS
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.
AUTHOR
Written by Paul Rubin, David MacKenzie, Richard M. Stallman,
and Jim Meyering.
REPORTING BUGS
Report rm bugs to bug-coreutils@gnu.org
GNU coreutils home page: <http://www.gnu.org/software/coreutils/>
General help using GNU software: <http://www.gnu.org/gethelp/>
COPYRIGHT
Copyright © 2009 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.
SEE ALSO
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 aqrm invocationaq
should give you access to the complete manual.