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       This  manual  page  is part of the POSIX Programmer's Manual.  The Linux implementation of
       this interface may differ (consult the corresponding Linux  manual  page  for  details  of
       Linux behavior), or the interface may not be implemented on Linux.

NAME

       rm — remove directory entries

SYNOPSIS

       rm [−fiRr] file...

DESCRIPTION

       The rm utility shall remove the directory entry specified by each file argument.

       If  either of the files dot or dot-dot are specified as the basename portion of an operand
       (that is, the final pathname component) or if an operand resolves to the  root  directory,
       rm  shall  write  a  diagnostic  message  to  standard error and do nothing more with such
       operands.

       For each file the following steps shall be taken:

        1. If the file does not exist:

            a. If the −f option is not specified, rm shall write a diagnostic message to standard
               error.

            b. Go on to any remaining files.

        2. If file is of type directory, the following steps shall be taken:

            a. If  neither  the  −R  option  nor  the  −r  option  is specified, rm shall write a
               diagnostic message to standard error, do nothing more with file, and go on to  any
               remaining files.

            b. If  the  −f  option  is  not  specified, and either the permissions of file do not
               permit writing and the standard input is a terminal or the −i option is specified,
               rm shall write a prompt to standard error and read a line from the standard input.
               If the response is not affirmative, rm shall do nothing more with the current file
               and go on to any remaining files.

            c. For each entry contained in file, other than dot or dot-dot, the four steps listed
               here (1 to 4) shall be taken with the entry as if it were a file operand.  The  rm
               utility  shall  not  traverse  directories  by following symbolic links into other
               parts of the hierarchy, but shall remove the links themselves.

            d. If the −i option is specified, rm shall write a prompt to standard error and  read
               a  line  from  the standard input. If the response is not affirmative, rm shall do
               nothing more with the current file, and go on to any remaining files.

        3. If file is not of type directory, the −f option  is  not  specified,  and  either  the
           permissions  of file do not permit writing and the standard input is a terminal or the
           −i option is specified, rm shall write a prompt to the standard error and read a  line
           from  the standard input. If the response is not affirmative, rm shall do nothing more
           with the current file and go on to any remaining files.

        4. If the current file is a directory, rm shall perform actions equivalent to the rmdir()
           function  defined  in  the  System  Interfaces  volume  of  POSIX.1‐2008 called with a
           pathname of the current file used as the path argument. If the current file is  not  a
           directory, rm shall perform actions equivalent to the unlink() function defined in the
           System Interfaces volume of POSIX.1‐2008 called with a pathname of  the  current  file
           used as the path argument.

           If  this  fails for any reason, rm shall write a diagnostic message to standard error,
           do nothing more with the current file, and go on to any remaining files.

       The rm utility shall be able to descend to arbitrary depths in a file hierarchy, and shall
       not  fail  due to path length limitations (unless an operand specified by the user exceeds
       system limitations).

OPTIONS

       The rm utility shall conform to the Base Definitions volume of POSIX.1‐2008, Section 12.2,
       Utility Syntax Guidelines.

       The following options shall be supported:

       −f        Do  not  prompt for confirmation. Do not write diagnostic messages or modify the
                 exit status in the case of nonexistent operands. Any previous occurrences of the
                 −i option shall be ignored.

       −i        Prompt for confirmation as described previously. Any previous occurrences of the
                 −f option shall be ignored.

       −R        Remove file hierarchies. See the DESCRIPTION.

       −r        Equivalent to −R.

OPERANDS

       The following operand shall be supported:

       file      A pathname of a directory entry to be removed.

STDIN

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

INPUT FILES

       None.

ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES

       The following environment variables shall affect the execution of rm:

       LANG      Provide a default value for the internationalization variables that are unset or
                 null.  (See  the  Base  Definitions  volume  of   POSIX.1‐2008,   Section   8.2,
                 Internationalization   Variables  for  the  precedence  of  internationalization
                 variables used to determine the values of locale categories.)

       LC_ALL    If set to a non-empty string  value,  override  the  values  of  all  the  other
                 internationalization variables.

       LC_COLLATE
                 Determine the locale for the behavior of ranges, equivalence classes, and multi-
                 character collating elements used in the extended regular expression defined for
                 the yesexpr locale keyword in the LC_MESSAGES category.

       LC_CTYPE  Determine  the  locale for the interpretation of sequences of bytes of text data
                 as characters (for example, single-byte as opposed to multi-byte  characters  in
                 arguments) and the behavior of character classes within regular expressions used
                 in the extended regular expression defined for the yesexpr locale keyword in the
                 LC_MESSAGES category.

       LC_MESSAGES
                 Determine  the locale used to process affirmative responses, and the locale used
                 to affect the format and contents of diagnostic messages and prompts written  to
                 standard error.

       NLSPATH   Determine the location of message catalogs for the processing of LC_MESSAGES.

ASYNCHRONOUS EVENTS

       Default.

STDOUT

       Not used.

STDERR

       Prompts  shall  be  written  to  standard  error  under  the  conditions  specified in the
       DESCRIPTION and OPTIONS sections. The prompts shall contain the file pathname,  but  their
       format  is  otherwise  unspecified.  The  standard error also shall be used for diagnostic
       messages.

OUTPUT FILES

       None.

EXTENDED DESCRIPTION

       None.

EXIT STATUS

       The following exit values shall be returned:

        0    Each directory entry was successfully removed, unless its removal was canceled by  a
             non-affirmative response to a prompt for confirmation.

       >0    An error occurred.

CONSEQUENCES OF ERRORS

       Default.

       The following sections are informative.

APPLICATION USAGE

       The  rm  utility  is  forbidden  to remove the names dot and dot-dot in order to avoid the
       consequences of inadvertently doing something like:

           rm −r .*

       Some implementations do not permit the removal of the last link to  an  executable  binary
       file that is being executed; see the [EBUSY] error in the unlink() function defined in the
       System Interfaces volume of POSIX.1‐2008. Thus, the rm utility can  fail  to  remove  such
       files.

       The  −i  option causes rm to prompt and read the standard input even if the standard input
       is not a terminal, but in the absence of −i the  mode  prompting  is  not  done  when  the
       standard input is not a terminal.

EXAMPLES

        1. The following command:

               rm a.out core

           removes the directory entries: a.out and core.

        2. The following command:

               rm −Rf junk

           removes the directory junk and all its contents, without prompting.

RATIONALE

       For  absolute  clarity,  paragraphs  (2b)  and (3) in the DESCRIPTION of rm describing the
       behavior when prompting for confirmation, should be interpreted in the following manner:

           if ((NOT f_option) AND
               ((not_writable AND input_is_terminal) OR i_option))

       The exact format of the interactive prompts is unspecified. Only the general nature of the
       contents  of  prompts  are  specified  because implementations may desire more descriptive
       prompts than those used on historical implementations. Therefore, an application not using
       the  −f  option, or using the −i option, relies on the system to provide the most suitable
       dialog directly with the user, based on the behavior specified.

       The −r option is historical practice on all  known  systems.  The  synonym  −R  option  is
       provided  for  consistency  with  the  other utilities in this volume of POSIX.1‐2008 that
       provide options requesting recursive descent through the file hierarchy.

       The behavior of the −f option in historical versions of rm is  inconsistent.  In  general,
       along  with  ``forcing''  the  unlink  without  prompting for permission, it always causes
       diagnostic messages to be suppressed and the exit status to be unmodified for  nonexistent
       operands  and  files  that  cannot  be  unlinked. In some versions, however, the −f option
       suppresses usage messages and system errors as well.  Suppressing such messages is  not  a
       service to either shell scripts or users.

       It  is  less  clear  that error messages regarding files that cannot be unlinked (removed)
       should be suppressed. Although this is historical practice, this  volume  of  POSIX.1‐2008
       does not permit the −f option to suppress such messages.

       When given the −r and −i options, historical versions of rm prompt the user twice for each
       directory, once before removing its contents and once before actually attempting to delete
       the  directory  entry  that names it. This allows the user to ``prune'' the file hierarchy
       walk. Historical versions of rm were inconsistent in that  some  did  not  do  the  former
       prompt for directories named on the command line and others had obscure prompting behavior
       when the −i option was specified and the permissions of the file did not  permit  writing.
       The  POSIX  Shell and Utilities rm differs little from historic practice, but does require
       that prompts be consistent. Historical versions of  rm  were  also  inconsistent  in  that
       prompts  were done to both standard output and standard error. This volume of POSIX.1‐2008
       requires that prompts be done to standard error, for consistency with cp and  mv,  and  to
       allow historical extensions to rm that provide an option to list deleted files on standard
       output.

       The rm utility is required to descend to arbitrary depths so that any file  hierarchy  may
       be  deleted.  This  means,  for  example,  that  the  rm  utility  cannot  run out of file
       descriptors during its descent (that is, if the number of file descriptors is limited,  rm
       cannot  be  implemented  in  the  historical fashion where one file descriptor is used per
       directory level). Also, rm is not permitted to fail because of path  length  restrictions,
       unless an operand specified by the user is longer than {PATH_MAX}.

       The  rm  utility  removes  symbolic  links  themselves,  not the files they refer to, as a
       consequence of the dependence on the unlink() functionality,  per  the  DESCRIPTION.  When
       removing  hierarchies with −r or −R, the prohibition on following symbolic links has to be
       made explicit.

FUTURE DIRECTIONS

       None.

SEE ALSO

       rmdir

       The Base Definitions volume of POSIX.1‐2008, Chapter  8,  Environment  Variables,  Section
       12.2, Utility Syntax Guidelines

       The System Interfaces volume of POSIX.1‐2008, remove(), rmdir(), unlink()

COPYRIGHT

       Portions  of  this  text  are  reprinted  and  reproduced in electronic form from IEEE Std
       1003.1, 2013 Edition, Standard for Information Technology  --  Portable  Operating  System
       Interface  (POSIX),  The Open Group Base Specifications Issue 7, Copyright (C) 2013 by the
       Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Inc  and  The  Open  Group.   (This  is
       POSIX.1-2008  with  the  2013  Technical  Corrigendum  1  applied.)  In  the  event of any
       discrepancy between this version and the original IEEE and The Open  Group  Standard,  the
       original  IEEE  and The Open Group Standard is the referee document. The original Standard
       can be obtained online at http://www.unix.org/online.html .

       Any typographical or formatting errors that appear in this page are most  likely  to  have
       been  introduced  during  the conversion of the source files to man page format. To report
       such errors, see https://www.kernel.org/doc/man-pages/reporting_bugs.html .