path: root/bin/rm/rm.1

.\"	$OpenBSD: rm.1,v 1.27 2007/02/16 13:59:54 jmc Exp $
.\"	$NetBSD: rm.1,v 1.8 1995/07/25 19:37:30 jtc Exp $
.\"
.\" Copyright (c) 1990, 1993, 1994
.\"	The Regents of the University of California.  All rights reserved.
.\"
.\" This code is derived from software contributed to Berkeley by
.\" the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Inc.
.\"
.\" Redistribution and use in source and binary forms, with or without
.\" modification, are permitted provided that the following conditions
.\" are met:
.\" 1. Redistributions of source code must retain the above copyright
.\"    notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer.
.\" 2. Redistributions in binary form must reproduce the above copyright
.\"    notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer in the
.\"    documentation and/or other materials provided with the distribution.
.\" 3. Neither the name of the University nor the names of its contributors
.\"    may be used to endorse or promote products derived from this software
.\"    without specific prior written permission.
.\"
.\" THIS SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED BY THE REGENTS AND CONTRIBUTORS ``AS IS'' AND
.\" ANY EXPRESS OR IMPLIED WARRANTIES, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE
.\" IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE
.\" ARE DISCLAIMED.  IN NO EVENT SHALL THE REGENTS OR CONTRIBUTORS BE LIABLE
.\" FOR ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, EXEMPLARY, OR CONSEQUENTIAL
.\" DAMAGES (INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, PROCUREMENT OF SUBSTITUTE GOODS
.\" OR SERVICES; LOSS OF USE, DATA, OR PROFITS; OR BUSINESS INTERRUPTION)
.\" HOWEVER CAUSED AND ON ANY THEORY OF LIABILITY, WHETHER IN CONTRACT, STRICT
.\" LIABILITY, OR TORT (INCLUDING NEGLIGENCE OR OTHERWISE) ARISING IN ANY WAY
.\" OUT OF THE USE OF THIS SOFTWARE, EVEN IF ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF
.\" SUCH DAMAGE.
.\"
.\"	@(#)rm.1	8.5 (Berkeley) 12/5/94
.\"
.Dd December 5, 1994
.Dt RM 1
.Os
.Sh NAME
.Nm rm
.Nd remove directory entries
.Sh SYNOPSIS
.Nm rm
.Op Fl dfiPRr
.Ar
.Sh DESCRIPTION
The
.Nm
utility attempts to remove the non-directory type files specified on the
command line.
If the permissions of the file do not permit writing, and the standard
input device is a terminal, the user is prompted (on the standard error
output) for confirmation.
.Pp
The options are as follows:
.Bl -tag -width Ds
.It Fl d
Attempt to remove directories as well as other types of files.
.It Fl f
Attempt to remove the files without prompting for confirmation,
regardless of the file's permissions.
If the file does not exist, do not display a diagnostic message or modify
the exit status to reflect an error.
The
.Fl f
option overrides any previous
.Fl i
options.
.It Fl i
Request confirmation before attempting to remove each file, regardless of
the file's permissions, or whether or not the standard input device is a
terminal.
The
.Fl i
option overrides any previous
.Fl f
options.
.It Fl P
Overwrite regular files before deleting them.
Files are overwritten three times, first with the byte pattern
.Li 0xff ,
then
.Li 0x00 ,
and then
.Li 0xff
again, before they are deleted.
Files with multiple links will not be overwritten.
.It Fl R
Attempt to remove the file hierarchy rooted in each file argument.
The
.Fl R
option implies the
.Fl d
option.
If the
.Fl i
option is specified, the user is prompted for confirmation before
each directory's contents are processed (as well as before the attempt
is made to remove the directory).
If the user does not respond affirmatively, the file hierarchy rooted in
that directory is skipped.
.Pp
.It Fl r
Equivalent to
.Fl R .
.El
.Pp
The
.Nm
utility removes symbolic links, not the files referenced by the links.
.Pp
It is an error to attempt to remove the files
.Dq \&.
or
.Dq .. .
It is forbidden to remove the file
.Dq ..
merely to avoid the antisocial consequences of inadvertently
doing something like
.Dq Cm rm -r .* .
.Pp
The
.Nm
utility exits 0 if all of the named files or file hierarchies were removed,
or if the
.Fl f
option was specified and all of the existing files or file hierarchies were
removed.
If an error occurs,
.Nm
exits with a value >0.
.Sh EXAMPLES
Recursively remove all files contained within the
.Pa foobar
directory hierarchy:
.Pp
.Dl $ rm -rf foobar
.Pp
Either of these commands will remove the file
.Pa -f :
.Bd -literal -offset indent
$ rm -- -f
$ rm ./-f
.Ed
.Sh SEE ALSO
.Xr rmdir 1 ,
.\" .Xr undelete 2 ,
.Xr unlink 2 ,
.Xr fts 3 ,
.Xr symlink 7
.Sh STANDARDS
The
.Nm
utility differs from historical implementations in that the
.Fl f
option only masks attempts to remove non-existent files instead of
masking a large variety of errors.
.Pp
Also, historical
.Bx
implementations prompted on the standard output,
not the standard error output.
.Pp
The interactive mode used to be a
.Nm dsw
command, a carryover from the ancient past with an
amusing etymology.
.Pp
The
.Nm
utility is almost
.St -p1003.2
compatible, except that
.Tn POSIX
requires
.Nm
to act like
.Xr rmdir 1
when the
.Ar file
specified is a directory.
This implementation requires the
.Fl d
option if such behavior is desired.
This follows the historical
behavior of
.Nm
with respect to directories.
.Sh HISTORY
An
.Nm
command appeared in
.At v1 .
.Sh BUGS
The
.Fl P
option assumes that the underlying file system is a fixed-block file
system,
such as UFS.
In addition, only regular files are overwritten, other types of files
are not.