Section 1 · User commands

rm.1

Package: coreutils-common

RM

NAME
SYNOPSIS
DESCRIPTION
OPTIONS
AUTHOR
REPORTING BUGS
COPYRIGHT
SEE ALSO

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 and arguments, 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[=all]

do not remove ’/’ (default); with ’all’, reject any command line argument on a separate device from its parent

−r, −R, −−recursive

remove directories and their contents recursively

−d, −−dir

remove empty directories

−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.

Any attempt to remove a file whose last file name component is ’.’ or ’..’ is rejected with a diagnostic.

To remove a file whose name starts with a ’−’, for example ’−foo’, use one of these commands:

rm −− −foo

rm ./−foo

If you use rm to remove a file, it might be possible to recover some of its contents, given sufficient expertise and/or time. For greater assurance that the contents are unrecoverable, consider using shred(1).

AUTHOR

Written by Paul Rubin, David MacKenzie, Richard M. Stallman, and Jim Meyering.

REPORTING BUGS

GNU coreutils online help: <https://www.gnu.org/software/coreutils/>
Report any translation bugs to <https://translationproject.org/team/>

COPYRIGHT

Copyright © 2024 Free Software Foundation, Inc. License GPLv3+: GNU GPL version 3 or later <https://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.