rm — remove files or directories
rm [OPTION...] [FILE...]
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.
Remove (unlink) the FILE(s).
−f, −−forceignore nonexistent files and arguments, never prompt
−iprompt before every removal
−Iprompt 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−systemwhen removing a hierarchy recursively, skip any directory that is on a file system different from that of the corresponding command line argument
−−no−preserve−rootdo not treat '/' specially
−−preserve−rootdo not remove '/' (default)
−r, −R, −−recursiveremove directories and their contents recursively
−d, −−dirremove empty directories
−v, −−verboseexplain what is being done
−−helpdisplay this help and exit
−−versionoutput 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 '−', for example '−foo', 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.
GNU coreutils online help: <http://www.gnu.org/software/coreutils/>
Report rm translation bugs to <http://translationproject.org/team/>
unlink(1), unlink(2), chattr(1), shred(1)
Full documentation at: <http://www.gnu.org/software/coreutils/rm>
or available locally via: info '(coreutils) rm invocation'
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Copyright © 2015 Free Software Foundation, Inc. License GPLv3+: GNU GPL version 3 or later <http://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. |