xref: /freebsd/bin/rm/rm.1 (revision 74bf4e164ba5851606a27d4feff27717452583e5)
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31.\"	@(#)rm.1	8.5 (Berkeley) 12/5/94
32.\" $FreeBSD$
33.\"
34.Dd January 28, 1999
35.Dt RM 1
36.Os
37.Sh NAME
38.Nm rm ,
39.Nm unlink
40.Nd remove directory entries
41.Sh SYNOPSIS
42.Nm
43.Op Fl dfiPRrvW
44.Ar
45.Nm unlink
46.Ar file
47.Sh DESCRIPTION
48The
49.Nm
50utility attempts to remove the non-directory type files specified on the
51command line.
52If the permissions of the file do not permit writing, and the standard
53input device is a terminal, the user is prompted (on the standard error
54output) for confirmation.
55.Pp
56The options are as follows:
57.Bl -tag -width Fl
58.It Fl d
59Attempt to remove directories as well as other types of files.
60.It Fl f
61Attempt to remove the files without prompting for confirmation,
62regardless of the file's permissions.
63If the file does not exist, do not display a diagnostic message or modify
64the exit status to reflect an error.
65The
66.Fl f
67option overrides any previous
68.Fl i
69options.
70.It Fl i
71Request confirmation before attempting to remove each file, regardless of
72the file's permissions, or whether or not the standard input device is a
73terminal.
74The
75.Fl i
76option overrides any previous
77.Fl f
78options.
79.It Fl P
80Overwrite regular files before deleting them.
81Files are overwritten three times, first with the byte pattern 0xff,
82then 0x00, and then 0xff again, before they are deleted.
83.It Fl R
84Attempt to remove the file hierarchy rooted in each file argument.
85The
86.Fl R
87option implies the
88.Fl d
89option.
90If the
91.Fl i
92option is specified, the user is prompted for confirmation before
93each directory's contents are processed (as well as before the attempt
94is made to remove the directory).
95If the user does not respond affirmatively, the file hierarchy rooted in
96that directory is skipped.
97.Pp
98.It Fl r
99Equivalent to
100.Fl R .
101.It Fl v
102Be verbose when deleting files, showing them as they are removed.
103.It Fl W
104Attempt to undelete the named files.
105Currently, this option can only be used to recover
106files covered by whiteouts.
107.El
108.Pp
109The
110.Nm
111utility removes symbolic links, not the files referenced by the links.
112.Pp
113It is an error to attempt to remove the files
114.Dq .\&
115or
116.Dq .. .
117.Pp
118When the utility is called as
119.Nm unlink ,
120only one argument,
121which must not be a directory,
122may be supplied.
123No options may be supplied in this simple mode of operation,
124which performs an
125.Xr unlink 2
126operation on the passed argument.
127.Pp
128The
129.Nm
130utility exits 0 if all of the named files or file hierarchies were removed,
131or if the
132.Fl f
133option was specified and all of the existing files or file hierarchies were
134removed.
135If an error occurs,
136.Nm
137exits with a value >0.
138.Sh NOTE
139The
140.Nm
141command uses
142.Xr getopt 3
143to parse its arguments, which allows it to accept
144the
145.Sq Li --
146option which will cause it to stop processing flag options at that
147point.
148This will allow the removal of file names that begin
149with a dash
150.Pq Sq - .
151For example:
152.Dl rm -- -filename
153The same behavior can be obtained by using an absolute or relative
154path reference.
155For example:
156.Dl rm /home/user/-filename
157.Dl rm ./-filename
158.Sh SEE ALSO
159.Xr chflags 1 ,
160.Xr rmdir 1 ,
161.Xr undelete 2 ,
162.Xr unlink 2 ,
163.Xr fts 3 ,
164.Xr getopt 3 ,
165.Xr symlink 7
166.Sh BUGS
167The
168.Fl P
169option assumes that the underlying file system is a fixed-block file
170system.
171UFS is a fixed-block file system, LFS is not.
172In addition, only regular files are overwritten, other types of files
173are not.
174.Sh COMPATIBILITY
175The
176.Nm
177utility differs from historical implementations in that the
178.Fl f
179option only masks attempts to remove non-existent files instead of
180masking a large variety of errors.
181The
182.Fl v
183option is non-standard and its use in scripts is not recommended.
184.Pp
185Also, historical
186.Bx
187implementations prompted on the standard output,
188not the standard error output.
189.Sh STANDARDS
190The
191.Nm
192command conforms to
193.St -p1003.2 .
194.Pp
195The simplified
196.Nm unlink
197command conforms to
198.St -susv2 .
199.Sh HISTORY
200A
201.Nm
202command appeared in
203.At v1 .
204