1RM(1P) POSIX Programmer's Manual RM(1P)
2
6 This manual page is part of the POSIX Programmer's Manual. The Linux
7 implementation of this interface may differ (consult the corresponding
8 Linux manual page for details of Linux behavior), or the interface may
9 not be implemented on Linux.
10
12 rm - remove directory entries
13
15 rm [-fiRr] file...
16
18 The rm utility shall remove the directory entry specified by each file
19 argument.
20 If either of the files dot or dot-dot are specified as the basename
22 portion of an operand (that is, the final pathname component), rm shall
23 write a diagnostic message to standard error and do nothing more with
24 such operands.
25 For each file the following steps shall be taken:
27 1. If the file does not exist:
29 a. If the -f option is not specified, rm shall write a diagnostic
31 message to standard error.
32 b. Go on to any remaining files.
34 2. If file is of type directory, the following steps shall be taken:
36 a. If neither the -R option nor the -r option is specified, rm
38 shall write a diagnostic message to standard error, do nothing
39 more with file, and go on to any remaining files.
40 b. If the -f option is not specified, and either the permissions
42 of file do not permit writing and the standard input is a ter‐
43 minal or the -i option is specified, rm shall write a prompt to
44 standard error and read a line from the standard input. If the
45 response is not affirmative, rm shall do nothing more with the
46 current file and go on to any remaining files.
47 c. For each entry contained in file, other than dot or dot-dot,
49 the four steps listed here (1 to 4) shall be taken with the
50 entry as if it were a file operand. The rm utility shall not
51 traverse directories by following symbolic links into other
52 parts of the hierarchy, but shall remove the links themselves.
53 d. If the -i option is specified, rm shall write a prompt to stan‐
55 dard error and read a line from the standard input. If the
56 response is not affirmative, rm shall do nothing more with the
57 current file, and go on to any remaining files.
58 3. If file is not of type directory, the -f option is not specified,
60 and either the permissions of file do not permit writing and the
61 standard input is a terminal or the -i option is specified, rm
62 shall write a prompt to the standard error and read a line from the
63 standard input. If the response is not affirmative, rm shall do
64 nothing more with the current file and go on to any remaining
65 files.
66 4. If the current file is a directory, rm shall perform actions equiv‐
68 alent to the rmdir() function defined in the System Interfaces vol‐
69 ume of IEEE Std 1003.1-2001 called with a pathname of the current
70 file used as the path argument. If the current file is not a direc‐
71 tory, rm shall perform actions equivalent to the unlink() function
72 defined in the System Interfaces volume of IEEE Std 1003.1-2001
73 called with a pathname of the current file used as the path argu‐
74 ment.
75 If this fails for any reason, rm shall write a diagnostic message to
77 standard error, do nothing more with the current file, and go on to any
78 remaining files.
79 The rm utility shall be able to descend to arbitrary depths in a file
81 hierarchy, and shall not fail due to path length limitations (unless an
82 operand specified by the user exceeds system limitations).
83
85 The rm utility shall conform to the Base Definitions volume of
86 IEEE Std 1003.1-2001, Section 12.2, Utility Syntax Guidelines.
87 The following options shall be supported:
89 -f Do not prompt for confirmation. Do not write diagnostic messages
91 or modify the exit status in the case of nonexistent operands.
92 Any previous occurrences of the -i option shall be ignored.
93 -i Prompt for confirmation as described previously. Any previous
95 occurrences of the -f option shall be ignored.
96 -R Remove file hierarchies. See the DESCRIPTION.
98 -r Equivalent to -R.
100
103 The following operand shall be supported:
104 file A pathname of a directory entry to be removed.
106
109 The standard input shall be used to read an input line in response to
110 each prompt specified in the STDOUT section. Otherwise, the standard
111 input shall not be used.
112
114 None.
115
117 The following environment variables shall affect the execution of rm:
118 LANG Provide a default value for the internationalization variables
120 that are unset or null. (See the Base Definitions volume of
121 IEEE Std 1003.1-2001, Section 8.2, Internationalization Vari‐
122 ables for the precedence of internationalization variables used
123 to determine the values of locale categories.)
124 LC_ALL If set to a non-empty string value, override the values of all
126 the other internationalization variables.
127 LC_COLLATE
129 Determine the locale for the behavior of ranges, equivalence
131 classes, and multi-character collating elements used in the
132 extended regular expression defined for the yesexpr locale key‐
133 word in the LC_MESSAGES category.
134 LC_CTYPE
136 Determine the locale for the interpretation of sequences of
137 bytes of text data as characters (for example, single-byte as
138 opposed to multi-byte characters in arguments) and the behavior
139 of character classes within regular expressions used in the
140 extended regular expression defined for the yesexpr locale key‐
141 word in the LC_MESSAGES category.
142 LC_MESSAGES
144 Determine the locale for the processing of affirmative responses
145 that should be used to affect the format and contents of diag‐
146 nostic messages written to standard error.
147 NLSPATH
149 Determine the location of message catalogs for the processing of
150 LC_MESSAGES .
151
154 Default.
155
157 Not used.
158
160 Prompts shall be written to standard error under the conditions speci‐
161 fied in the DESCRIPTION and OPTIONS sections. The prompts shall contain
162 the file pathname, but their format is otherwise unspecified. The stan‐
163 dard error also shall be used for diagnostic messages.
164
166 None.
167
169 None.
170
172 The following exit values shall be returned:
173 0 All of the named directory entries for which rm performed
175 actions equivalent to the rmdir() or unlink() functions were
176 removed.
177 >0 An error occurred.
179
182 Default.
183 The following sections are informative.
185
187 The rm utility is forbidden to remove the names dot and dot-dot in
188 order to avoid the consequences of inadvertently doing something like:
189 rm -r .*
192 Some implementations do not permit the removal of the last link to an
194 executable binary file that is being executed; see the [EBUSY] error in
195 the unlink() function defined in the System Interfaces volume of
196 IEEE Std 1003.1-2001. Thus, the rm utility can fail to remove such
197 files.
198 The -i option causes rm to prompt and read the standard input even if
200 the standard input is not a terminal, but in the absence of -i the mode
201 prompting is not done when the standard input is not a terminal.
202
204 1. The following command:
205 rm a.out core
208 removes the directory entries: a.out and core.
210 2. The following command:
212 rm -Rf junk
215 removes the directory junk and all its contents, without prompting.
217
219 For absolute clarity, paragraphs (2b) and (3) in the DESCRIPTION of rm
220 describing the behavior when prompting for confirmation, should be
221 interpreted in the following manner:
222 if ((NOT f_option) AND
225 ((not_writable AND input_is_terminal) OR i_option))
226 The exact format of the interactive prompts is unspecified. Only the
228 general nature of the contents of prompts are specified because imple‐
229 mentations may desire more descriptive prompts than those used on his‐
230 torical implementations. Therefore, an application not using the -f
231 option, or using the -i option, relies on the system to provide the
232 most suitable dialog directly with the user, based on the behavior
233 specified.
234 The -r option is historical practice on all known systems. The synonym
236 -R option is provided for consistency with the other utilities in this
237 volume of IEEE Std 1003.1-2001 that provide options requesting recur‐
238 sive descent through the file hierarchy.
239 The behavior of the -f option in historical versions of rm is inconsis‐
241 tent. In general, along with "forcing" the unlink without prompting for
242 permission, it always causes diagnostic messages to be suppressed and
243 the exit status to be unmodified for nonexistent operands and files
244 that cannot be unlinked. In some versions, however, the -f option sup‐
245 presses usage messages and system errors as well. Suppressing such mes‐
246 sages is not a service to either shell scripts or users.
247 It is less clear that error messages regarding files that cannot be
249 unlinked (removed) should be suppressed. Although this is historical
250 practice, this volume of IEEE Std 1003.1-2001 does not permit the -f
251 option to suppress such messages.
252 When given the -r and -i options, historical versions of rm prompt the
254 user twice for each directory, once before removing its contents and
255 once before actually attempting to delete the directory entry that
256 names it. This allows the user to "prune" the file hierarchy walk. His‐
257 torical versions of rm were inconsistent in that some did not do the
258 former prompt for directories named on the command line and others had
259 obscure prompting behavior when the -i option was specified and the
260 permissions of the file did not permit writing. The POSIX Shell and
261 Utilities rm differs little from historic practice, but does require
262 that prompts be consistent. Historical versions of rm were also incon‐
263 sistent in that prompts were done to both standard output and standard
264 error. This volume of IEEE Std 1003.1-2001 requires that prompts be
265 done to standard error, for consistency with cp and mv, and to allow
266 historical extensions to rm that provide an option to list deleted
267 files on standard output.
268 The rm utility is required to descend to arbitrary depths so that any
270 file hierarchy may be deleted. This means, for example, that the rm
271 utility cannot run out of file descriptors during its descent (that is,
272 if the number of file descriptors is limited, rm cannot be implemented
273 in the historical fashion where one file descriptor is used per direc‐
274 tory level). Also, rm is not permitted to fail because of path length
275 restrictions, unless an operand specified by the user is longer than
276 {PATH_MAX}.
277 The rm utility removes symbolic links themselves, not the files they
279 refer to, as a consequence of the dependence on the unlink() function‐
280 ality, per the DESCRIPTION. When removing hierarchies with -r or -R,
281 the prohibition on following symbolic links has to be made explicit.
282
284 None.
285
287 rmdir(), the System Interfaces volume of IEEE Std 1003.1-2001,
288 remove(), rmdir(), unlink()
289
291 Portions of this text are reprinted and reproduced in electronic form
292 from IEEE Std 1003.1, 2003 Edition, Standard for Information Technology
293 -- Portable Operating System Interface (POSIX), The Open Group Base
294 Specifications Issue 6, Copyright (C) 2001-2003 by the Institute of
295 Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Inc and The Open Group. In the
296 event of any discrepancy between this version and the original IEEE and
297 The Open Group Standard, the original IEEE and The Open Group Standard
298 is the referee document. The original Standard can be obtained online
299 at http://www.opengroup.org/unix/online.html .
300IEEE/The Open Group 2003 RM(1P)