rm - Removes (unlinks) files or directories
rm [-efirR] [--] file...
Interfaces documented on this reference page conform to
industry standards as follows:
rm: XCU5.0
Refer to the standards(5) reference page for more information
about industry standards and associated tags.
[Tru64 UNIX] Displays a message after deleting each file.
Does not prompt before removing a file that does not have
write permission set, and does not display an error message
if a specified file does not exist. If you specify
both -f and -i when invoking rm, the option that is specified
last on the command line takes effect. Prompts you
before deleting each file (interactive). When you use both
-i and -r, rm also prompts for removing each file, then
the directory. If you specify both -f and -i with rm, the
last one on the command line takes effect. Permits recursive
removal of directories and their contents (for cases
where file is a directory). Permits recursive removal of
directories and their contents (for cases where file is a
directory, same as -r). [Tru64 UNIX] Indicates that all
arguments following it are to be treated as file names.
This allows you to specify file names starting with a -
(dash).
Path name of a file or directory to be removed.
The rm command removes the entries for the specified files
from a directory.
If file is of the directory type: If you specify neither
-R or -r, rm writes a diagnostic message to standard
error, does nothing further with file, and goes on to any
remaining files. If -f is not specified and either of the
following is true, rm writes a prompt to standard error
and reads a line from standard input: The permissions of
file do not permit writing and standard input is a terminal
The -i option is specified
If the response is affirmative, rm does nothing
further with the current file and goes on to any
remaining files. (The same actions are taken if -f
is specified and file is not of the directory
type.) For each entry contained in file, other
than (dot) or (dot dot) entries, the four steps
listed here (1-3) are taken with the entry as if it
were a file argument.
[Tru64 UNIX] If an entry is the last link to a file, it
is destroyed. To remove a file, you must have write
permission for its parent directory, but need neither read
nor write permission for the file itself. If the sticky
bit on the directory is set, you must be the owner of the
file or superuser.
If a file has no write permission and standard input is a
terminal or the -i option is specified, rm displays the
file permission code and reads a line from standard input.
If that line begins with y, or the locale's equivalent of
a y, rm deletes the file. If the response is anything
else, rm does nothing to that file and continues with the
next specified file.
The LC_MESSAGES variable determines the locale's equivalent
of y or n (for yes/no queries).
The -i option causes rm to prompt and read the standard
input even if the standard input is not a terminal. In
the absence of -i, however, the mode prompting is not done
when the standard input is not a terminal.
It is an error to specify . (dot) or .. (dot dot) as the
final path name component of file, although these entries
may be removed with the -r or -R options.
The following exit values are returned: If the -f option
was not specified, all the named directory entries were
removed; otherwise, all the existing named directory
entries were removed. An error occurred.
To delete a file, enter: rm myfile
If there is another link to this file, then the
file remains under that name, but myfile is
removed. If myfile is the only link, the file
itself is deleted. To delete a file silently,
enter: rm -f core
This removes core without asking any questions or
displaying any error messages. This is normally
used in shell procedures. It prevents confusing
messages from being displayed when deleting files
that may or may not exist. To delete files interactively,
enter: rm -i mydir/*
After each file name is displayed, enter the affirmative
response to remove the file; press <Return>
(or anything other than the affirmative response)
to retain the file. To delete a directory tree
interactively, enter: rm -ir manual
This recursively removes the contents of all subdirectories
of manual, then removes manual itself,
asking if you want to remove each file and directory.
ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES [Toc] [Back] The following environment variables affect the execution
of rm: Provides a default value for the internationalization
variables that are unset or null. If LANG is unset or
null, the corresponding value from the default locale is
used. If any of the internationalization variables contain
an invalid setting, the utility behaves as if none of
the variables had been defined. If set to a non-empty
string value, overrides the values of all the other internationalization
variables. Determines the locale for the
behavior of ranges, equivalence classes, and multicharacter
collating elements used in the extended regular
expression defined for the yesexpr locale keyword in the
LC_MESSAGES category. Determines the locale for the
interpretation of sequences of bytes of text data as characters
(for example, single-byte as opposed to multibyte
characters in arguments).
Determines the behavior of character classes in
regular expressions used in the extended regular
espression defined for the yesexpr locale keyword
in the LC_MESSAGES category. Determines the locale
for the format and contents of diagnostic messages
written to standard error. Determines the location
of message catalogues for the processing of LC_MESSAGES.
Commands: ln(1), mv(1), rmdir(1)
Functions: rmdir(2), unlink(2), remove(3)
Standards: standards(5)
rm(1)
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