NAME

rm — remove files and directories

SYNOPSIS

DESCRIPTION

The rm utility removes each given file, by default directories aren't removed.

As required by POSIX, rm explicitly checks if a file is writable, when not and -f wasn't passed, the user is prompted before removal. Care should be taken when using other programs as unlink(2) only fails when the containing directory isn't writable, rather than the file itself.

OPTIONS

-d

Remove empty directories, doesn't empties them first via recursion.

-f

Force: Never prompt before recursing into directories and removing files, non-existing files do not change exit status nor produce diagnostic messages. Overrides -i.

-i

Interactive: Prompt before removing any file

-r, -R

Recurse into directories, also allowing to remove them.

-v

Verbose: Print when a file got removed

EXIT STATUS

The rm utility exits 0 on success, and >0 if an error occurs.

SEE ALSO

unlink(2)

STANDARDS

rm should be compliant with the IEEE Std 1003.1-2024 (“POSIX.1”) specification.

AUTHORS

Haelwenn (lanodan) Monnier <contact+utils@hacktivis.me>