rm-original(1)

remove files or directories

From the original Amiga UNIX 2.1 manual. Some things it mentions may not be in this release.

With the coreutil package (with the extra set), see rm(1) instead.

Also by this name: rmdir(1), General commands · rmdir(2), System calls

NAME

rm, rmdir - remove files or directories

SYNOPSIS

rm [-f] [-i] file ...
rm -r [-f] [-i] dirname ... [file ...]

rmdir [-p] [-s] dirname ...

DESCRIPTION

rm removes the entries for one or more files from a directory. If a file has no write permission and the standard input is a terminal, the full set of permissions (in octal) for the file are printed followed by a question mark. This is a prompt for confirmation. If the answer begins with y (for yes), the file is deleted, otherwise the file remains.

If file is a symbolic link, the link will be removed, but the file or directory to which it refers will not be deleted. A user does not need write permission on a symbolic link to remove it, provided they have write permissions in the directory.

Note that if the standard input is not a terminal, the command will operate as if the -f option is in effect.

Three options apply to rm:

-f This option causes the removal of all files (whether write-protected or not) in a directory without prompting the user. In a write-protected directory, however, files are never removed (whatever their permissions are), but no messages are displayed. If the removal of a write-protected directory is attempted, this option will not suppress an error message.

-r This option causes the recursive removal of any directories and subdirectories in the argument list. The directory will be emptied of files and removed. Note that the user is normally prompted for removal of any write-protected files which the directory contains. The write-protected files are removed without prompting, however, if the -f option is used, or if the standard input is not a terminal and the -i option is not used.

Symbolic links that are encountered  with  this  option
will not be traversed.
If the removal of a non-empty,  write-protected  direc-
tory  is  attempted, the command will always fail (even
if the -f option is used), resulting in an  error  mes-
sage.

-i With this option, confirmation of removal of any write-protected file occurs interactively. It overrides the -f option and remains in effect even if the standard input is not a terminal.

Two options apply to rmdir:

-p This option allows users to remove the directory dirname and its parent directories which become empty. A message is printed on standard output about whether the whole path is removed or part of the path remains for some reason.

-s This option is used to suppress the message printed on standard error when -p is in effect.

DIAGNOSTICS

All messages are generally self-explanatory.
It is forbidden to remove the files "." and ".."   in  order
to  avoid  the consequences of inadvertently doing something
like the following:
     rm -r .*

Both rm and rmdir return exit codes of 0 if all the specified directories are removed successfully. Otherwise, they return a non-zero exit code.

NOTES