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)
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