rm(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) General Commands Manual rm(1) NAME
rm - remove files or directories SYNOPSIS
file ... DESCRIPTION
The command removes the entries for one or more files from a directory. If an entry was the last link to the file, the file is destroyed. Removal of a file requires write and search (execute) permission in its directory, but no permissions on the file itself. However, if the sticky bit is set on the directory containing the file, only the owner of the file, the owner of the directory, or a user having appropri- ate privileges can remove the file. If a user does not have write permission for a file to be removed and standard input is a terminal, a prompt containing the file name and its permissions is printed requesting that the removal of the file be confirmed (see Access Control Lists below). A line is then read from standard input. If that line begins with the file is deleted; otherwise, the file remains. No questions are asked when the option is given or if standard input is not a terminal. If file is of type directory, and the option is not specified, and either the permissions of file do not permit writing and standard input is a terminal or the option is specified, writes a prompt to standard error and reads a line from standard input. If the response does not begin with it does nothing more with the current file and goes on to any remaining files. If file is a symbolic link, then only the symbolic link is removed. The file or directory pointed to by the symbolic link is not affected. If any of the intermediate path components of file happens to be a symbolic link, then follows the symbolic link and removes the file. Options recognizes the following options: Force each file or directory to be removed without prompting for confirmation, regardless of the permissions of the entry. This option also suppresses diagnostic mes- sages regarding nonexistent operands. This option does not suppress any diagnostic messages other than those regarding nonexistent operands. To suppress all error message and interactive prompts, the option should be used while redirecting standard error output to This option ignores any previous occurrence of the option. Write a prompt to standard error requesting confirmation before removing each entry. This option ignores any previous occurrence of the option. For each argument that is a directory, this option causes to recursively delete the entire contents of that directory before removing the directory itself. When used in conjunction with the option, asks whether to examine each directory before interactively removing files in that directory and again afterward to confirm removing the directory itself. The option will descend to arbitrary depths in a file hierarchy and will not fail due to path length limitations unless the length of file name, specified by the user exceeds system limitations. Equivalent to Access Control Lists If a file has optional ACL entries, displays a plus sign after the file's permissions. The permissions shown summarize the file's value returned by (see stat(2)). See also acl(5). EXTERNAL INFLUENCES
Environment Variables provides a default value for the internationalization variables that are unset or null. If is unset or null, the default value of "C" (see lang(5)) is used. If any of the internationalization variables contains an invalid setting, will behave as if all internationalization variables are set to "C". See environ(5). If set to a non-empty string value, overrides the values of all the other internationalization variables. determines the interpretation of file names as single and/or multi-byte characters, the classification of characters as printable, and the characters matched by character class expressions in regular expressions. determines the locale that should be used to affect the format and contents of diagnostic messages written to standard error and informa- tive messages written to standard output. determines the location of message catalogues for the processing of International Code Set Support Single- and multibyte character code sets are supported. DIAGNOSTICS
Generally self-explanatory. Note that the option does not suppress all diagnostic messages. It is forbidden to remove the file in order to avoid the consequences of using a command such as: If a designated file is a directory, an error comment is printed unless the or option is used. RETURN VALUE
exits with one of the following values: If the option is not specified, 0 is returned only if all the named directory entries (the arguments specified in the command) are removed. If the option is specified, then all the existing named directory entries are removed. If any of the named directory entries are non-existent, still returns a zero. An error occurred. EXAMPLES
Remove files with a prompt for verification: Remove all the files in a directory: Note that the previous command removes files only, and does not remove any directories in Remove a file in the current directory whose name starts with or or some other character that is special to the shell: etc. Remove a file in the current directory whose name starts with some strange (usually nonprinting, invisible) character or perhaps has spaces at the beginning or end of the filename, prompting for confirmation: If is not unique in the directory, enter when each of the other files is prompted. A powerful and dangerous command to remove a directory is: or which removes all files and directories from without any prompting for verification to remove the files or the directories. This command should only be used when you are absolutely certain that all the files and directories in as well as itself are to be removed. DEPENDENCIES
NFS does not display a plus sign to indicate the existence of optional access control list entries when asking for confirmation before removing a networked file. SEE ALSO
rmdir(1), unlink(2), acl(5). STANDARDS CONFORMANCE
rm(1)