rm - Remove files or directories

RM(1) User Commands RM(1) NAME rm - remove files or directories SYNOPSIS rm [OPTION]... [FILE]... DESCRIPTION This manual page documents the GNU version of rm. rm removes each spec‐ ified 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. OPTIONS 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 remov‐ ing recursively; less intrusive than -i, while still giving pro‐ tection against most mistakes --interactive[=WHEN] prompt according to WHEN: never, once (-I), or always (-i); with‐ out 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[=all] do not remove ’/’ (default); with ’all’, reject any command line argument on a separate device from its parent -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 re‐ cover some of its contents, given sufficient expertise and/or time. For greater assurance that the contents are truly unrecoverable, consider using shred(1). AUTHOR Written by Paul Rubin, David MacKenzie, Richard M. Stallman, and Jim Meyering. REPORTING BUGS GNU coreutils online help: <https://www.gnu.org/software/coreutils/> Report any translation bugs to <https://translationproject.org/team/> COPYRIGHT Copyright © 2022 Free Software Foundation, Inc. License GPLv3+: GNU GPL version 3 or later <https://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. SEE ALSO unlink(1), unlink(2), chattr(1), shred(1) Full documentation <https://www.gnu.org/software/coreutils/rm> or available locally via: info '(coreutils) rm invocation' GNU coreutils 9.1 January 2024 RM(1)

This manual page documents the GNU version of the 'rm' command, which removes files or directories. By default, it doesn't remove directories unless the '-r' or '--recursive' option is used. The command offers interactive prompts to confirm removal, especially when dealing with multiple files or recursive operations. Options include forcing removal, ignoring nonexistent files, prompting for confirmation, and controlling behavior with root directories. The 'rm' command might allow data recovery with expertise, suggesting 'shred(1)' for unrecoverable deletion.