RM(1) User Commands RM(1) 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 '/' specially --preserve-root do not remove '/' (default) -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 GNU coreutils online help: <http://www.gnu.org/software/coreutils/> Report rm translation bugs to <http://translationproject.org/team/> AUTHOR Written by Paul Rubin, David MacKenzie, Richard M. Stallman, and Jim Meyering. COPYRIGHT Copyright © 2013 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 per‐ mitted by law. SEE ALSO unlink(1), unlink(2), chattr(1), shred(1) The full documentation for rm is maintained as a Texinfo manual. If the info and rm programs are properly installed at your site, the command info coreutils 'rm invocation' should give you access to the complete manual. GNU coreutils 8.22 November 2016 RM(1)