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
13 rm — remove directory entries
14
16 rm [−fiRr] file...
17
19 The rm utility shall remove the directory entry specified by each file
20 argument.
21 If either of the files dot or dot-dot are specified as the basename
23 portion of an operand (that is, the final pathname component) or if an
24 operand resolves to the root directory, rm shall write a diagnostic
25 message to standard error and do nothing more with such operands.
26 For each file the following steps shall be taken:
28 1. If the file does not exist:
30 a. If the −f option is not specified, rm shall write a diagnostic
32 message to standard error.
33 b. Go on to any remaining files.
35 2. If file is of type directory, the following steps shall be taken:
37 a. If neither the −R option nor the −r option is specified, rm
39 shall write a diagnostic message to standard error, do nothing
40 more with file, and go on to any remaining files.
41 b. If the −f option is not specified, and either the permissions
43 of file do not permit writing and the standard input is a ter‐
44 minal or the −i option is specified, rm shall write a prompt to
45 standard error and read a line from the standard input. If the
46 response is not affirmative, rm shall do nothing more with the
47 current file and go on to any remaining files.
48 c. For each entry contained in file, other than dot or dot-dot,
50 the four steps listed here (1 to 4) shall be taken with the
51 entry as if it were a file operand. The rm utility shall not
52 traverse directories by following symbolic links into other
53 parts of the hierarchy, but shall remove the links themselves.
54 d. If the −i option is specified, rm shall write a prompt to stan‐
56 dard error and read a line from the standard input. If the
57 response is not affirmative, rm shall do nothing more with the
58 current file, and go on to any remaining files.
59 3. If file is not of type directory, the −f option is not specified,
61 and either the permissions of file do not permit writing and the
62 standard input is a terminal or the −i option is specified, rm
63 shall write a prompt to the standard error and read a line from the
64 standard input. If the response is not affirmative, rm shall do
65 nothing more with the current file and go on to any remaining
66 files.
67 4. If the current file is a directory, rm shall perform actions equiv‐
69 alent to the rmdir() function defined in the System Interfaces vol‐
70 ume of POSIX.1‐2008 called with a pathname of the current file used
71 as the path argument. If the current file is not a directory, rm
72 shall perform actions equivalent to the unlink() function defined
73 in the System Interfaces volume of POSIX.1‐2008 called with a path‐
74 name of the current file used as the path argument.
75 If this fails for any reason, rm shall write a diagnostic message
77 to standard error, do nothing more with the current file, and go on
78 to any 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 POSIX.1‐2008, Section 12.2, Utility Syntax Guidelines.
87 The following options shall be supported:
89 −f Do not prompt for confirmation. Do not write diagnostic mes‐
91 sages or modify the exit status in the case of nonexistent
92 operands. Any previous occurrences of the −i option shall be
93 ignored.
94 −i Prompt for confirmation as described previously. Any previous
96 occurrences of the −f option shall be ignored.
97 −R Remove file hierarchies. See the DESCRIPTION.
99 −r Equivalent to −R.
101
103 The following operand shall be supported:
104 file A pathname of a directory entry to be removed.
106
108 The standard input shall be used to read an input line in response to
109 each prompt specified in the STDOUT section. Otherwise, the standard
110 input shall not be used.
111
113 None.
114
116 The following environment variables shall affect the execution of rm:
117 LANG Provide a default value for the internationalization vari‐
119 ables that are unset or null. (See the Base Definitions vol‐
120 ume of POSIX.1‐2008, Section 8.2, Internationalization Vari‐
121 ables for the precedence of internationalization variables
122 used to determine the values of locale categories.)
123 LC_ALL If set to a non-empty string value, override the values of
125 all the other internationalization variables.
126 LC_COLLATE
128 Determine the locale for the behavior of ranges, equivalence
129 classes, and multi-character collating elements used in the
130 extended regular expression defined for the yesexpr locale
131 keyword in the LC_MESSAGES category.
132 LC_CTYPE Determine the locale for the interpretation of sequences of
134 bytes of text data as characters (for example, single-byte as
135 opposed to multi-byte characters in arguments) and the behav‐
136 ior of character classes within regular expressions used in
137 the extended regular expression defined for the yesexpr
138 locale keyword in the LC_MESSAGES category.
139 LC_MESSAGES
141 Determine the locale used to process affirmative responses,
142 and the locale used to affect the format and contents of
143 diagnostic messages and prompts written to standard error.
144 NLSPATH Determine the location of message catalogs for the processing
146 of LC_MESSAGES.
147
149 Default.
150
152 Not used.
153
155 Prompts shall be written to standard error under the conditions speci‐
156 fied in the DESCRIPTION and OPTIONS sections. The prompts shall contain
157 the file pathname, but their format is otherwise unspecified. The stan‐
158 dard error also shall be used for diagnostic messages.
159
161 None.
162
164 None.
165
167 The following exit values shall be returned:
168 0 Each directory entry was successfully removed, unless its removal
170 was canceled by a non-affirmative response to a prompt for con‐
171 firmation.
172 >0 An error occurred.
174
176 Default.
177 The following sections are informative.
179
181 The rm utility is forbidden to remove the names dot and dot-dot in
182 order to avoid the consequences of inadvertently doing something like:
183 rm −r .*
185 Some implementations do not permit the removal of the last link to an
187 executable binary file that is being executed; see the [EBUSY] error in
188 the unlink() function defined in the System Interfaces volume of
189 POSIX.1‐2008. Thus, the rm utility can fail to remove such files.
190 The −i option causes rm to prompt and read the standard input even if
192 the standard input is not a terminal, but in the absence of −i the mode
193 prompting is not done when the standard input is not a terminal.
194
196 1. The following command:
197 rm a.out core
199 removes the directory entries: a.out and core.
201 2. The following command:
203 rm −Rf junk
205 removes the directory junk and all its contents, without prompting.
207
209 For absolute clarity, paragraphs (2b) and (3) in the DESCRIPTION of rm
210 describing the behavior when prompting for confirmation, should be
211 interpreted in the following manner:
212 if ((NOT f_option) AND
214 ((not_writable AND input_is_terminal) OR i_option))
215 The exact format of the interactive prompts is unspecified. Only the
217 general nature of the contents of prompts are specified because imple‐
218 mentations may desire more descriptive prompts than those used on his‐
219 torical implementations. Therefore, an application not using the −f
220 option, or using the −i option, relies on the system to provide the
221 most suitable dialog directly with the user, based on the behavior
222 specified.
223 The −r option is historical practice on all known systems. The synonym
225 −R option is provided for consistency with the other utilities in this
226 volume of POSIX.1‐2008 that provide options requesting recursive
227 descent through the file hierarchy.
228 The behavior of the −f option in historical versions of rm is inconsis‐
230 tent. In general, along with ``forcing'' the unlink without prompting
231 for permission, it always causes diagnostic messages to be suppressed
232 and the exit status to be unmodified for nonexistent operands and files
233 that cannot be unlinked. In some versions, however, the −f option sup‐
234 presses usage messages and system errors as well. Suppressing such
235 messages is not a service to either shell scripts or users.
236 It is less clear that error messages regarding files that cannot be
238 unlinked (removed) should be suppressed. Although this is historical
239 practice, this volume of POSIX.1‐2008 does not permit the −f option to
240 suppress such messages.
241 When given the −r and −i options, historical versions of rm prompt the
243 user twice for each directory, once before removing its contents and
244 once before actually attempting to delete the directory entry that
245 names it. This allows the user to ``prune'' the file hierarchy walk.
246 Historical versions of rm were inconsistent in that some did not do the
247 former prompt for directories named on the command line and others had
248 obscure prompting behavior when the −i option was specified and the
249 permissions of the file did not permit writing. The POSIX Shell and
250 Utilities rm differs little from historic practice, but does require
251 that prompts be consistent. Historical versions of rm were also incon‐
252 sistent in that prompts were done to both standard output and standard
253 error. This volume of POSIX.1‐2008 requires that prompts be done to
254 standard error, for consistency with cp and mv, and to allow historical
255 extensions to rm that provide an option to list deleted files on stan‐
256 dard output.
257 The rm utility is required to descend to arbitrary depths so that any
259 file hierarchy may be deleted. This means, for example, that the rm
260 utility cannot run out of file descriptors during its descent (that is,
261 if the number of file descriptors is limited, rm cannot be implemented
262 in the historical fashion where one file descriptor is used per direc‐
263 tory level). Also, rm is not permitted to fail because of path length
264 restrictions, unless an operand specified by the user is longer than
265 {PATH_MAX}.
266 The rm utility removes symbolic links themselves, not the files they
268 refer to, as a consequence of the dependence on the unlink() function‐
269 ality, per the DESCRIPTION. When removing hierarchies with −r or −R,
270 the prohibition on following symbolic links has to be made explicit.
271
273 None.
274
276 rmdir
277 The Base Definitions volume of POSIX.1‐2008, Chapter 8, Environment
279 Variables, Section 12.2, Utility Syntax Guidelines
280 The System Interfaces volume of POSIX.1‐2008, remove(), rmdir(),
282 unlink()
283
285 Portions of this text are reprinted and reproduced in electronic form
286 from IEEE Std 1003.1, 2013 Edition, Standard for Information Technology
287 -- Portable Operating System Interface (POSIX), The Open Group Base
288 Specifications Issue 7, Copyright (C) 2013 by the Institute of Electri‐
289 cal and Electronics Engineers, Inc and The Open Group. (This is
290 POSIX.1-2008 with the 2013 Technical Corrigendum 1 applied.) In the
291 event of any discrepancy between this version and the original IEEE and
292 The Open Group Standard, the original IEEE and The Open Group Standard
293 is the referee document. The original Standard can be obtained online
294 at http://www.unix.org/online.html .
295 Any typographical or formatting errors that appear in this page are
297 most likely to have been introduced during the conversion of the source
298 files to man page format. To report such errors, see https://www.ker‐
299 nel.org/doc/man-pages/reporting_bugs.html .
300IEEE/The Open Group 2013 RM(1P)