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This manual page is part of the POSIX Programmer's Manual. The Linux implementation of this interface
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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 .
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