rm — remove files or directories
Examples (TL;DR)
-
Remove files from arbitrary locations:
rm path/to/file path/to/another/file -
Recursively remove a directory and all its subdirectories:
rm -r path/to/directory -
Forcibly remove a directory, without prompting for confirmation or showing error messages:
rm -rf path/to/directory -
Interactively remove multiple files, with a prompt before every removal:
rm -i file(s) -
Remove files in verbose mode, printing a message for each removed file:
rm -v path/to/directory/*
Synopsis
rm [OPTION]... [FILE]...
Description
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.
Options
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[=all]
do not remove '/' (default); with 'all', reject any command line argument on a separate device from its parent
- -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.
Reporting Bugs
GNU coreutils online help: <https://www.gnu.org/software/coreutils/>
Report any translation bugs to <https://translationproject.org/team/>
Copyright
Copyright © 2019 Free Software Foundation, Inc. License GPLv3+: GNU GPL version 3 or later <https://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.
See Also
unlink(1), unlink(2), chattr(1), shred(1)
Full documentation <https://www.gnu.org/software/coreutils/rm>
or available locally via: info '(coreutils) rm invocation'
Referenced By
ch-run(1), c_incl(1), debugfs(8), gio(1), lockfile(1), lsof(1), mksh(1), mq_overview(7), ocfs2(7), ptrash(1), rcm(7), remove(3), rmdir(2), rmlint(1), samefile(1), srm(1), symlink(7), tmpwatch(8), unlink(2).