rmdir(1) [ultrix man page]
rm(1) General Commands Manual rm(1) Name rm, rmdir - remove (unlink) files or directories Syntax rm [-f] [-r] [-i] [-] file-or-directory-name... rmdir directory-name... Description The command removes the entries for one or more files from a directory. If there are no links to the file then the file is destroyed. For further information, see The command removes entries for the named directories, which must be empty. If they are not empty, the directories remain, and displays an error message (see EXAMPLES). To remove a file, you must have write permission in its directory, but you do not need read or write permission on the file itself. When you are using from a terminal, and you do not have write permission on the file, the command asks for confirmation before destroying the file. If input is redirected from the standard input device (your terminal), then checks to ensure that input is not coming from your terminal. If not, sets the -f option, which overrides the file protection, and removes the files silently, regardless of what you have specified in the file redirected as input to See EXAMPLES. Options - Specifies that the named files have names beginning with a minus (for example ). -f Forces the removal of file or directory without first requesting confirmation. Only system or usage messages are displayed. -i Prompts for yes or no response before removing each entry. Does not ask when combined with the -f option. If you type a y, followed by any combination of characters, a yes response is assumed. -r Recursively removes all entries from the specified directory and, then, removes the entry for that directory from its parent direc- tory. Examples The following example shows how to remove a file in your current working directory. rm myfile This example shows use of the null option to remove a file beginning with a minus sign. rm - -gorp This example shows how a confirmation is requested for removal of a file for which you do not have write permission. rm testfile rm: override protection 400 for testfile? y This example shows how the combination of -i and -r options lets you examine all the files in a directory before removing them. In the example, mydirectory is a subdirectory of the current working directory. Note that the last question requests confirmation before removing the directory itself. Although the user types ``y'', requesting removal of the directory, the command does not allow this, because the directory is not empty; the user typed ``n'' to the question about the file file2 , so file2 was not removed. rm -ir mydirectory rm: remove mydirectory/file1? y rm: remove mydirectory/file2? n . . . rm: remove mydirectory? y rm: mydirectory: Directory not empty This example illustrates that overrides file protection when input is redirected from the standard input device. The user creates a file named ``alfie'', with a read-only file protection. The user then creates a file named ``ans'' to contain the character ``n''. The command following destroys the file ``alfie'', even though the redirected input file requested no deletion. cat > alfie hello ^d chmod 444 alfie cat > ans n ^d rm < ans alfie See Also unlink(2) rm(1)
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rm(1) User Commands rm(1) NAME
rm, rmdir - remove directory entries SYNOPSIS
/usr/bin/rm [-f] [-i] file... /usr/bin/rm -rR [-f] [-i] dirname... [file]... /usr/xpg4/bin/rm [-fiRr] file... /usr/bin/rmdir [-ps] dirname... ksh93 /usr/bin/rmdir [-eps] dirname... DESCRIPTION
/usr/bin/rm /usr/xpg4/bin/rm The rm utility removes the directory entry specified by each file argument. If a file has no write permission and the standard input is a terminal, the full set of permissions (in octal) for the file are printed followed by a question mark. This is a prompt for confirmation. If the answer is affirmative, the file is deleted, otherwise the file remains. If file is a symbolic link, the link is removed, but the file or directory to which it refers is not deleted. Users do not need write per- mission to remove a symbolic link, provided they have write permissions in the directory. If multiple files are specified and removal of a file fails for any reason, rm writes a diagnostic message to standard error, do nothing more to the current file, and go on to any remaining files. If the standard input is not a terminal, the utility operates as if the -f option is in effect. /usr/bin/rmdir The rmdir utility removes the directory entry specified by each dirname operand, which must refer to an empty directory. Directories are processed in the order specified. If a directory and a subdirectory of that directory are specified in a single invocation of rmdir, the subdirectory must be specified before the parent directory so that the parent directory is empty when rmdir tries to remove it. ksh93 The rmdir built-in in ksh93 is associated with the /bin and /usr/bin paths. It is invoked when rmdir is executed without a pathname prefix and the pathname search finds a /bin/rmdir or /usr/bin/rmdir executable. rmdir deletes each given directory. The directory must be empty and contain no entries other than . or ... If a directory and a subdirec- tory of that directory are specified as operands, the subdirectory must be specified before the parent, so that the parent directory is empty when rmdir attempts to remove it. OPTIONS
The following options are supported for /usr/bin/rm and /usr/xpg4/bin/rm: -r Recursively removes directories and subdirectories in the argument list. The directory is emptied of files and removed. The user is normally prompted for removal of any write-protected files which the directory contains. The write-protected files are removed with- out prompting, however, if the -f option is used, or if the standard input is not a terminal and the -i option is not used. Symbolic links that are encountered with this option is not traversed. If the removal of a non-empty, write-protected directory is attempted, the utility always fails (even if the -f option is used), resulting in an error message. -R Same as -r option. /usr/bin/rm The following options are supported for /usr/bin/rm only: -f Removes all files (whether write-protected or not) in a directory without prompting the user. In a write-protected directory, how- ever, files are never removed (whatever their permissions are), but no messages are displayed. If the removal of a write-protected directory is attempted, this option does not suppress an error message. -i Interactive. With this option, rm prompts for confirmation before removing any files. It overrides the -f option and remains in effect even if the standard input is not a terminal. /usr/xpg4/bin/rm The following options are supported for /usr/xpg4/bin/rm only: -f Does not prompt for confirmation. Does not write diagnostic messages or modify the exit status in the case of non-existent operands. Any previous occurrences of the -i option is ignored. -i Prompts for confirmation. Any occurrences of the -f option is ignored. /usr/bin/rmdir The following options are supported for /usr/bin/rmdir only: -p Allows users to remove the directory dirname and its parent directories which become empty. A message is printed to standard error if all or part of the path could not be removed. -s Suppresses the message printed on the standard error when -p is in effect. ksh93 The following options are supported for the rmdir built-in for ksh93: -e Ignore each non-empty directory failure. --ignore-fail-on-non-empty -p Remove each explicit directory argument directory that becomes empty after its child directories are removed. --parents -s Suppress the message printed on the standard error when -p is in effect. --suppress OPERANDS
The following operands are supported: file Specifies the pathname of a directory entry to be removed. dirname Specifies the pathname of an empty directory to be removed. USAGE
See largefile(5) for the description of the behavior of rm and rmdir when encountering files greater than or equal to 2 Gbyte ( 2^31 bytes). EXAMPLES
The following examples are valid for the commands shown. /usr/bin/rm, /usr/xpg4/bin/rm Example 1 Removing Directories The following command removes the directory entries a.out and core: example% rm a.out core Example 2 Removing a Directory without Prompting The following command removes the directory junk and all its contents, without prompting: example% rm -rf junk /usr/bin/rmdir Example 3 Removing Empty Directories If a directory a in the current directory is empty, except that it contains a directory b, and a/b is empty except that it contains a directory c, the following command removes all three directories: example% rmdir -p a/b/c ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES
See environ(5) for descriptions of the following environment variables that affect the execution of rm and rmdir: LANG, LC_ALL, LC_COLLATE, LC_CTYPE, LC_MESSAGES, and NLSPATH. Affirmative responses are processed using the extended regular expression defined for the yesexpr keyword in the LC_MESSAGES category of the user's locale. The locale specified in the LC_COLLATE category defines the behavior of ranges, equivalence classes, and multi-character collating elements used in the expression defined for yesexpr. The locale specified in LC_CTYPE determines the locale for interpretation of sequences of bytes of text data a characters, the behavior of character classes used in the expression defined for the yesexpr. See locale(5). EXIT STATUS
The following exit values are returned: 0 If the -f option was not specified, all the named directory entries were removed; otherwise, all the existing named directory entries were removed. >0 An error occurred. ksh93 The following exit values are returned: 0 Successful completion. All directories deleted successfully. >0 An error occurred. One or more directories could not be deleted. ATTRIBUTES
See attributes(5) for descriptions of the following attributes: /usr/bin/rm, /usr/bin/rmdir +-----------------------------+-----------------------------+ | ATTRIBUTE TYPE | ATTRIBUTE VALUE | +-----------------------------+-----------------------------+ |Availability |SUNWcsu | +-----------------------------+-----------------------------+ |CSI |Enabled | +-----------------------------+-----------------------------+ /usr/xpg4/bin/rm +-----------------------------+-----------------------------+ | ATTRIBUTE TYPE | ATTRIBUTE VALUE | +-----------------------------+-----------------------------+ |Availability |SUNWxcu4 | +-----------------------------+-----------------------------+ |CSI |Enabled | +-----------------------------+-----------------------------+ |Interface Stability |Committed | +-----------------------------+-----------------------------+ |Standard |See standards(5). | +-----------------------------+-----------------------------+ ksh93 +-----------------------------+-----------------------------+ | ATTRIBUTE TYPE | ATTRIBUTE VALUE | +-----------------------------+-----------------------------+ |Availability |SUNWcsu | +-----------------------------+-----------------------------+ |Interface Stability |See below. | +-----------------------------+-----------------------------+ The ksh93 built-in binding to /bin and /usr/bin is Volatile. The built-in interfaces are Uncommitted. SEE ALSO
ksh93(1), rmdir(2), rmdir(2), unlink(2), attributes(5), environ(5), largefile(5), standards(5) DIAGNOSTICS
All messages are generally self-explanatory. It is forbidden to remove the files "." and ".." in order to avoid the consequences of inadvertently doing something like the following: example% rm -r .* It is forbidden to remove the file "/" in order to avoid the consequences of inadvertently doing something like: example% rm -rf $x/$y or example% rm -rf /$y when $x and $y expand to empty strings. NOTES
A - permits the user to mark explicitly the end of any command line options, allowing rm to recognize file arguments that begin with a -. As an aid to BSD migration, rm accepts -- as a synonym for -. This migration aid may disappear in a future release. If a -- and a - both appear on the same command line, the second is interpreted as a file. SunOS 5.11 20 Nov 2007 rm(1)