Section (1) rm
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 _zsingle_quotesz_/_zsingle_quotesz_ specially
−−preserve−root
[=all/]-
do not remove _zsingle_quotesz_/_zsingle_quotesz_ (default); with _zsingle_quotesz_all_zsingle_quotesz_, 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.
To remove a file whose name starts with a _zsingle_quotesz_−_zsingle_quotesz_, for example _zsingle_quotesz_−foo_zsingle_quotesz_, use one of these commands:
rm -- -foo rm ./-foo
Note that 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 truly unrecoverable, consider using shred.
REPORTING BUGS
GNU coreutils online help: <https://www.gnu.org/software/coreutils/>
Report any translation bugs to <https://translationproject.org/team/>
SEE ALSO
unlink(1), unlink(2), chattr(1), shred(1)
Full documentation <https://www.gnu.org/software/coreutils/rm>
or available locally via: info _zsingle_quotesz_(coreutils) rm invocation_zsingle_quotesz_
COPYRIGHT |
---|
Copyright © 2019 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. |