1RM(1P)                     POSIX Programmer's Manual                    RM(1P)
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PROLOG

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

NAME

12       rm — remove directory entries
13

SYNOPSIS

15       rm [-iRr] file...
16
17       rm -f [-iRr] [file...]
18

DESCRIPTION

20       The rm utility shall remove the directory entry specified by each  file
21       argument.
22
23       If  either  of  the  files dot or dot-dot are specified as the basename
24       portion of an operand (that is, the final pathname component) or if  an
25       operand  resolves  to  the  root directory, rm shall write a diagnostic
26       message to standard error and do nothing more with such operands.
27
28       For each file the following steps shall be taken:
29
30        1. If the file does not exist:
31
32            a. If the -f option is not specified, rm shall write a  diagnostic
33               message to standard error.
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35            b. Go on to any remaining files.
36
37        2. If file is of type directory, the following steps shall be taken:
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39            a. If  neither  the  -R  option nor the -r option is specified, rm
40               shall write a diagnostic message to standard error, do  nothing
41               more with file, and go on to any remaining files.
42
43            b. If  file is an empty directory, rm may skip to step 2d.  If the
44               -f option is not specified, and either the permissions of  file
45               do  not  permit writing and the standard input is a terminal or
46               the -i option is specified, rm shall write a prompt to standard
47               error  and read a line from the standard input. If the response
48               is not affirmative, rm shall do nothing more with  the  current
49               file and go on to any remaining files.
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51            c. For  each  entry  contained in file, other than dot or dot-dot,
52               the four steps listed here (1 to 4) shall  be  taken  with  the
53               entry  as  if  it were a file operand. The rm utility shall not
54               traverse directories by following  symbolic  links  into  other
55               parts of the hierarchy, but shall remove the links themselves.
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57            d. If the -i option is specified, rm shall write a prompt to stan‐
58               dard error and read a line from  the  standard  input.  If  the
59               response  is not affirmative, rm shall do nothing more with the
60               current file, and go on to any remaining files.
61
62        3. If file is not of type directory, the -f option is  not  specified,
63           and  either  the  permissions of file do not permit writing and the
64           standard input is a terminal or the  -i  option  is  specified,  rm
65           shall write a prompt to the standard error and read a line from the
66           standard input. If the response is not  affirmative,  rm  shall  do
67           nothing  more  with  the  current  file  and go on to any remaining
68           files.
69
70        4. If the current file is a directory, rm shall perform actions equiv‐
71           alent to the rmdir() function defined in the System Interfaces vol‐
72           ume of POSIX.1‐2017 called with a pathname of the current file used
73           as  the  path  argument. If the current file is not a directory, rm
74           shall perform actions equivalent to the unlink()  function  defined
75           in the System Interfaces volume of POSIX.1‐2017 called with a path‐
76           name of the current file used as the path argument.
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78           If this fails for any reason, rm shall write a  diagnostic  message
79           to standard error, do nothing more with the current file, and go on
80           to any remaining files.
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82       The rm utility shall be able to descend to arbitrary depths in  a  file
83       hierarchy, and shall not fail due to path length limitations (unless an
84       operand specified by the user exceeds system limitations).
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OPTIONS

87       The rm  utility  shall  conform  to  the  Base  Definitions  volume  of
88       POSIX.1‐2017, Section 12.2, Utility Syntax Guidelines.
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90       The following options shall be supported:
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92       -f        Do  not prompt for confirmation. Do not write diagnostic mes‐
93                 sages or modify the exit status in the case of no file  oper‐
94                 ands,  or in the case of operands that do not exist. Any pre‐
95                 vious occurrences of the -i option shall be ignored.
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97       -i        Prompt for confirmation as described previously. Any previous
98                 occurrences of the -f option shall be ignored.
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100       -R        Remove file hierarchies. See the DESCRIPTION.
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102       -r        Equivalent to -R.
103

OPERANDS

105       The following operand shall be supported:
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107       file      A pathname of a directory entry to be removed.
108

STDIN

110       The  standard  input shall be used to read an input line in response to
111       each prompt specified in the STDOUT section.  Otherwise,  the  standard
112       input shall not be used.
113

INPUT FILES

115       None.
116

ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES

118       The following environment variables shall affect the execution of rm:
119
120       LANG      Provide  a  default  value for the internationalization vari‐
121                 ables that are unset or null. (See the Base Definitions  vol‐
122                 ume  of POSIX.1‐2017, Section 8.2, Internationalization Vari‐
123                 ables for the precedence  of  internationalization  variables
124                 used to determine the values of locale categories.)
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126       LC_ALL    If  set  to  a non-empty string value, override the values of
127                 all the other internationalization variables.
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129       LC_COLLATE
130                 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
133                 keyword in the LC_MESSAGES category.
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135       LC_CTYPE  Determine  the  locale for the interpretation of sequences of
136                 bytes of text data as characters (for example, single-byte as
137                 opposed to multi-byte characters in arguments) and the behav‐
138                 ior of character classes within regular expressions  used  in
139                 the  extended  regular  expression  defined  for  the yesexpr
140                 locale keyword in the LC_MESSAGES category.
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142       LC_MESSAGES
143                 Determine the locale used to process  affirmative  responses,
144                 and  the  locale  used  to  affect the format and contents of
145                 diagnostic messages and prompts written to standard error.
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147       NLSPATH   Determine the location of message catalogs for the processing
148                 of LC_MESSAGES.
149

ASYNCHRONOUS EVENTS

151       Default.
152

STDOUT

154       Not used.
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STDERR

157       Prompts  shall be written to standard error under the conditions speci‐
158       fied in the DESCRIPTION and OPTIONS sections. The prompts shall contain
159       the file pathname, but their format is otherwise unspecified. The stan‐
160       dard error also shall be used for diagnostic messages.
161

OUTPUT FILES

163       None.
164

EXTENDED DESCRIPTION

166       None.
167

EXIT STATUS

169       The following exit values shall be returned:
170
171        0    Each directory entry was successfully removed, unless its removal
172             was  canceled  by a non-affirmative response to a prompt for con‐
173             firmation.
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175       >0    An error occurred.
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CONSEQUENCES OF ERRORS

178       Default.
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180       The following sections are informative.
181

APPLICATION USAGE

183       The rm utility is forbidden to remove the  names  dot  and  dot-dot  in
184       order to avoid the consequences of inadvertently doing something like:
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186
187           rm -r .*
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189       Some  implementations  do not permit the removal of the last link to an
190       executable binary file that is being executed; see the [EBUSY] error in
191       the  unlink()  function  defined  in  the  System  Interfaces volume of
192       POSIX.1‐2017. Thus, the rm utility can fail to remove such files.
193
194       The -i option causes rm to prompt and read the standard input  even  if
195       the standard input is not a terminal, but in the absence of -i the mode
196       prompting is not done when the standard input is not a terminal.
197

EXAMPLES

199        1. The following command:
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201
202               rm a.out core
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204           removes the directory entries: a.out and core.
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206        2. The following command:
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208
209               rm -Rf junk
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211           removes the directory junk and all its contents, without prompting.
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RATIONALE

214       For absolute clarity, paragraphs (2b) and (3) in the DESCRIPTION of  rm
215       describing  the  behavior  when  prompting  for confirmation, should be
216       interpreted in the following manner:
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218
219           if ((NOT f_option) AND
220               ((not_writable AND input_is_terminal) OR i_option))
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222       The exact format of the interactive prompts is  unspecified.  Only  the
223       general  nature of the contents of prompts are specified because imple‐
224       mentations may desire more descriptive prompts than those used on  his‐
225       torical  implementations.  Therefore,  an  application not using the -f
226       option, or using the -i option, relies on the  system  to  provide  the
227       most  suitable  dialog  directly  with  the user, based on the behavior
228       specified.
229
230       The -r option is historical practice on all known systems. The  synonym
231       -R  option is provided for consistency with the other utilities in this
232       volume  of  POSIX.1‐2017  that  provide  options  requesting  recursive
233       descent through the file hierarchy.
234
235       The behavior of the -f option in historical versions of rm is inconsis‐
236       tent. In general, along with ``forcing'' the unlink  without  prompting
237       for  permission,  it always causes diagnostic messages to be suppressed
238       and the exit status to be unmodified for nonexistent operands and files
239       that  cannot be unlinked. In some versions, however, the -f option sup‐
240       presses usage messages and system errors  as  well.   Suppressing  such
241       messages is not a service to either shell scripts or users.
242
243       It  is  less  clear  that error messages regarding files that cannot be
244       unlinked (removed) should be suppressed. Although  this  is  historical
245       practice,  this volume of POSIX.1‐2017 does not permit the -f option to
246       suppress such messages.
247
248       When given the -r and -i options, historical versions of rm prompt  the
249       user  twice  for  each directory, once before removing its contents and
250       once before actually attempting to  delete  the  directory  entry  that
251       names  it.  This  allows the user to ``prune'' the file hierarchy walk.
252       Historical versions of rm were inconsistent in that some did not do the
253       former  prompt for directories named on the command line and others had
254       obscure prompting behavior when the -i option  was  specified  and  the
255       permissions  of  the  file  did not permit writing. The POSIX Shell and
256       Utilities rm differs little from historic practice,  but  does  require
257       that  prompts be consistent. Historical versions of rm were also incon‐
258       sistent in that prompts were done to both standard output and  standard
259       error.  This  volume  of  POSIX.1‐2017 requires that prompts be done to
260       standard error, for consistency with cp and mv, and to allow historical
261       extensions  to rm that provide an option to list deleted files on stan‐
262       dard output.
263
264       The rm utility is required to descend to arbitrary depths so  that  any
265       file  hierarchy  may  be  deleted. This means, for example, that the rm
266       utility cannot run out of file descriptors during its descent (that is,
267       if  the number of file descriptors is limited, rm cannot be implemented
268       in the historical fashion where one file descriptor is used per  direc‐
269       tory  level).  Also, rm is not permitted to fail because of path length
270       restrictions, unless an operand specified by the user  is  longer  than
271       {PATH_MAX}.
272
273       The  rm  utility  removes symbolic links themselves, not the files they
274       refer to, as a consequence of the dependence on the unlink()  function‐
275       ality,  per  the  DESCRIPTION. When removing hierarchies with -r or -R,
276       the prohibition on following symbolic links has to be made explicit.
277

FUTURE DIRECTIONS

279       None.
280

SEE ALSO

282       rmdir
283
284       The Base Definitions volume of  POSIX.1‐2017,  Chapter  8,  Environment
285       Variables, Section 12.2, Utility Syntax Guidelines
286
287       The  System  Interfaces  volume  of  POSIX.1‐2017,  remove(),  rmdir(),
288       unlink()
289
291       Portions of this text are reprinted and reproduced in  electronic  form
292       from  IEEE Std 1003.1-2017, Standard for Information Technology -- Por‐
293       table Operating System Interface (POSIX), The Open Group Base  Specifi‐
294       cations  Issue  7, 2018 Edition, Copyright (C) 2018 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 .
300
301       Any typographical or formatting errors that appear  in  this  page  are
302       most likely to have been introduced during the conversion of the source
303       files to man page format. To report such errors,  see  https://www.ker
304       nel.org/doc/man-pages/reporting_bugs.html .
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308IEEE/The Open Group                  2017                               RM(1P)
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