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 |
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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. |