xref: /freebsd/bin/rm/rm.1 (revision c68159a6d8eede11766cf13896d0f7670dbd51aa)
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35.\"	@(#)rm.1	8.5 (Berkeley) 12/5/94
36.\" $FreeBSD$
37.\"
38.Dd January 28, 1999
39.Dt RM 1
40.Os
41.Sh NAME
42.Nm rm ,
43.Nm unlink
44.Nd remove directory entries
45.Sh SYNOPSIS
46.Nm
47.Op Fl dfiPRrvW
48.Ar file ...
49.Nm unlink
50.Ar file
51.Sh DESCRIPTION
52The
53.Nm
54utility attempts to remove the non-directory type files specified on the
55command line.
56If the permissions of the file do not permit writing, and the standard
57input device is a terminal, the user is prompted (on the standard error
58output) for confirmation.
59.Pp
60The options are as follows:
61.Bl -tag -width Fl
62.It Fl d
63Attempt to remove directories as well as other types of files.
64.It Fl f
65Attempt to remove the files without prompting for confirmation,
66regardless of the file's permissions.
67If the file does not exist, do not display a diagnostic message or modify
68the exit status to reflect an error.
69The
70.Fl f
71option overrides any previous
72.Fl i
73options.
74.It Fl i
75Request confirmation before attempting to remove each file, regardless of
76the file's permissions, or whether or not the standard input device is a
77terminal.
78The
79.Fl i
80option overrides any previous
81.Fl f
82options.
83.It Fl P
84Overwrite regular files before deleting them.
85Files are overwritten three times, first with the byte pattern 0xff,
86then 0x00, and then 0xff again, before they are deleted.
87.It Fl R
88Attempt to remove the file hierarchy rooted in each file argument.
89The
90.Fl R
91option implies the
92.Fl d
93option.
94If the
95.Fl i
96option is specified, the user is prompted for confirmation before
97each directory's contents are processed (as well as before the attempt
98is made to remove the directory).
99If the user does not respond affirmatively, the file hierarchy rooted in
100that directory is skipped.
101.Pp
102.It Fl r
103Equivalent to
104.Fl R .
105.It Fl v
106Be verbose when deleting files, showing them as they are removed.
107.It Fl W
108Attempt to undelete the named files.
109Currently, this option can only be used to recover
110files covered by whiteouts.
111.El
112.Pp
113The
114.Nm
115utility removes symbolic links, not the files referenced by the links.
116.Pp
117It is an error to attempt to remove the files
118.Dq .\&
119or
120.Dq .. .
121.Pp
122When the utility is called as
123.Nm unlink ,
124only one argument,
125which must not be a directory,
126may be supplied.
127No options may be supplied in this simple mode of operation,
128which performs an
129.Xr unlink 2
130operation on the passed argument.
131.Pp
132The
133.Nm
134utility exits 0 if all of the named files or file hierarchies were removed,
135or if the
136.Fl f
137option was specified and all of the existing files or file hierarchies were
138removed.
139If an error occurs,
140.Nm
141exits with a value >0.
142.Sh NOTE
143The
144.Nm
145command uses
146.Xr getopt 3
147to parse its arguments, which allows it to accept
148the
149.Sq Li --
150option which will cause it to stop processing flag options at that
151point.  This will allow the removal of file names that begin
152with a dash
153.Pq Sq - .
154For example:
155.Dl rm -- -filename
156The same behavior can be obtained by using an absolute or relative
157path reference.  For example:
158.Dl rm /home/user/-filename
159.Dl rm ./-filename
160.Sh SEE ALSO
161.Xr rmdir 1 ,
162.Xr undelete 2 ,
163.Xr unlink 2 ,
164.Xr fts 3 ,
165.Xr getopt 3 ,
166.Xr symlink 7
167.Sh BUGS
168The
169.Fl P
170option assumes that the underlying file system is a fixed-block file
171system.
172UFS is a fixed-block file system, LFS is not.
173In addition, only regular files are overwritten, other types of files
174are not.
175.Sh COMPATIBILITY
176The
177.Nm
178utility differs from historical implementations in that the
179.Fl f
180option only masks attempts to remove non-existent files instead of
181masking a large variety of errors.
182The
183.Fl v
184option is non-standard and its use in scripts is not recommended.
185.Pp
186Also, historical
187.Bx
188implementations prompted on the standard output,
189not the standard error output.
190.Sh STANDARDS
191The
192.Nm
193command is almost
194.St -p1003.2
195compatible, except that
196.Tn POSIX
197requires
198.Nm
199to act like
200.Xr rmdir 1
201when the
202.Ar file
203specified is a directory.  This implementation requires the
204.Fl d
205option if such behavior is desired.  This follows the historical
206behavior of
207.Nm
208with respect to directories.
209.Pp
210The simplified
211.Nm unlink
212command conforms to
213.St -susv2 .
214.Sh HISTORY
215A
216.Nm
217command appeared in
218.At v1 .
219