1 .\" Copyright (c) 1990, 1993, 1994
2 .\" The Regents of the University of California. All rights reserved.
4 .\" This code is derived from software contributed to Berkeley by
5 .\" the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Inc.
7 .\" Redistribution and use in source and binary forms, with or without
8 .\" modification, are permitted provided that the following conditions
10 .\" 1. Redistributions of source code must retain the above copyright
11 .\" notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer.
12 .\" 2. Redistributions in binary form must reproduce the above copyright
13 .\" notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer in the
14 .\" documentation and/or other materials provided with the distribution.
15 .\" 3. All advertising materials mentioning features or use of this software
16 .\" must display the following acknowledgement:
17 .\" This product includes software developed by the University of
18 .\" California, Berkeley and its contributors.
19 .\" 4. Neither the name of the University nor the names of its contributors
20 .\" may be used to endorse or promote products derived from this software
21 .\" without specific prior written permission.
23 .\" THIS SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED BY THE REGENTS AND CONTRIBUTORS ``AS IS'' AND
24 .\" ANY EXPRESS OR IMPLIED WARRANTIES, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE
25 .\" IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE
26 .\" ARE DISCLAIMED. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE REGENTS OR CONTRIBUTORS BE LIABLE
27 .\" FOR ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, EXEMPLARY, OR CONSEQUENTIAL
28 .\" DAMAGES (INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, PROCUREMENT OF SUBSTITUTE GOODS
29 .\" OR SERVICES; LOSS OF USE, DATA, OR PROFITS; OR BUSINESS INTERRUPTION)
30 .\" HOWEVER CAUSED AND ON ANY THEORY OF LIABILITY, WHETHER IN CONTRACT, STRICT
31 .\" LIABILITY, OR TORT (INCLUDING NEGLIGENCE OR OTHERWISE) ARISING IN ANY WAY
32 .\" OUT OF THE USE OF THIS SOFTWARE, EVEN IF ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF
35 .\" @(#)rm.1 8.5 (Berkeley) 12/5/94
36 .\" $FreeBSD: src/bin/rm/rm.1,v 1.19.2.6 2003/02/04 22:10:42 trhodes Exp $
37 .\" $DragonFly: src/bin/rm/rm.1,v 1.12 2007/01/02 23:42:20 swildner Exp $
45 .Nd remove directory entries
55 utility attempts to remove the non-directory type files specified on the
57 If the permissions of the file do not permit writing, and the standard
58 input device is a terminal, the user is prompted (on the standard error
59 output) for confirmation.
61 The options are as follows:
64 Attempt to remove directories as well as other types of files.
66 Attempt to remove the files without prompting for confirmation,
67 regardless of the file's permissions.
68 If the file does not exist, do not display a diagnostic message or modify
69 the exit status to reflect an error.
72 option overrides any previous
76 Request confirmation before attempting to remove each file, regardless of
77 the file's permissions, or whether or not the standard input device is a
81 option overrides any previous
85 Request confirmation once if more than three files are being removed or if a
86 directory is being recursively removed. This option only applies when the
88 utility is run in the foreground.
89 This is a far less intrusive option than
91 yet provides almost the same level of protection against mistakes.
93 Overwrite regular files before deleting them.
94 Files are overwritten three times, first with the byte pattern 0xff,
95 then 0x00, and then 0xff again, before they are deleted.
97 A file with a link count greater than one will neither be overwritten nor
98 removed, and a warning will be issued.
100 Attempt to remove the file hierarchy rooted in each file argument.
108 option is specified, the user is prompted for confirmation before
109 each directory's contents are processed (as well as before the attempt
110 is made to remove the directory).
111 If the user does not respond affirmatively, the file hierarchy rooted in
112 that directory is skipped.
118 Be verbose when deleting files, showing them as they are removed.
120 Attempt to undelete the named files.
121 Currently, this option can only be used to recover
122 files covered by whiteouts.
127 utility removes symbolic links, not the files referenced by the links.
129 It is an error to attempt to remove the files
134 When the utility is called as
137 which must not be a directory,
139 No options may be supplied in this simple mode of operation,
142 operation on the passed argument.
146 utility exits 0 if all of the named files or file hierarchies were removed,
149 option was specified and all of the existing files or file hierarchies were
153 exits with a value >0.
163 signal, the current file or directory being removed
164 will be written to standard error.
170 to parse its arguments, which allows it to accept
173 option which will cause it to stop processing flag options at that
174 point. This will allow the removal of file names that begin
179 The same behavior can be obtained by using an absolute or relative
180 path reference. For example:
181 .Dl rm /home/user/-filename
186 utility differs from historical implementations in that the
188 option only masks attempts to remove non-existent files instead of
189 masking a large variety of errors.
192 option is non-standard and its use in scripts is not recommended.
196 implementations prompted on the standard output,
197 not the standard error output.
224 option assumes that the underlying file system is a fixed-block file
226 UFS is a fixed-block file system, LFS is not.
227 In addition, only regular files are overwritten, other types of files
228 are not. Hardlinked regular files will not be overwritten or removed,
229 possibly leading to unintended behavior. It is arguable which is the MORE