path: root/bin/rm/rm.1

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.\"	@(#)rm.1	8.5 (Berkeley) 12/5/94
.\"
.Dd $Mdocdate: October 4 2010 $
.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 be unlinked but not 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 (and its contents) are processed.
If the user does not respond affirmatively, the file hierarchy rooted in
that directory is skipped.
.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 .* .
.Sh EXIT STATUS
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 is compliant with the
.St -p1003.1-2008
specification.
.Pp
The flags
.Op Fl dP
are extensions to that specification.
.Pp
.St -p1003.1-2008
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.
.Pp
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.
.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.