Remove files or directories
rm [OPTION]... FILE...
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.
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
do not remove '/' (default)
-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.
Written by Paul Rubin, David MacKenzie, Richard M. Stallman, and Jim Meyering.
GNU coreutils online help: <http://www.gnu.org/software/coreutils/>
Report rm translation bugs to <http://translationproject.org/team/>
Copyright © 2014 Free Software Foundation, Inc. License GPLv3+: GNU GPL version 3 or later <http://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.