GSP
Quick Navigator

Search Site

Unix VPS
A - Starter
B - Basic
C - Preferred
D - Commercial
MPS - Dedicated
Previous VPSs
* Sign Up! *

Support
Contact Us
Online Help
Handbooks
Domain Status
Man Pages

FAQ
Virtual Servers
Pricing
Billing
Technical

Network
Facilities
Connectivity
Topology Map

Miscellaneous
Server Agreement
Year 2038
Credits
 

USA Flag

 

 

Man Pages
RM(1) User Commands RM(1)

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, --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

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/>

Written by Paul Rubin, David MacKenzie, Richard M. Stallman, and Jim Meyering.

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 permitted by law.

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.

November 2020 GNU coreutils 8.22

Search for    or go to Top of page |  Section 1 |  Main Index

Powered by GSP Visit the GSP FreeBSD Man Page Interface.
Output converted with ManDoc.