rm(1) (Essential Utilities) 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 directory. 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 command 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 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.
-r This option causes the recursive removal of any directories 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 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.
-i With this option, confirmation of removal of any write-protected
file occurs interactively. It overrides the -f option and
remains in effect even if the standard input is not a terminal.
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rm(1) (Essential Utilities) rm(1)
Two options apply to rmdir:
-p This option allows users to remove the directory dirname 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 specified
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 command line
options, allowing rm to recognize filename 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 filename.
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