xref: /illumos-gate/usr/src/man/man1/rm.1 (revision 806838751b3ce15414781bffd4adfac166204c62)

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.Dd February 21, 2023
.Dt RM 1
.Os
.Sh NAME
.Nm rm ,
.Nm rmdir
.Nd remove directory entries
.Sh SYNOPSIS
.Nm /usr/bin/rm
.Op Fl f
.Op Fl i
.Ar
.Pp
.Nm /usr/bin/rm
.Fl rR
.Op Fl f
.Op Fl i
.Ar dirname ...
.Op Ar file ...
.Pp
.Nm /usr/xpg4/bin/rm
.Op Fl fiRr
.Ar
.Pp
.Nm /usr/bin/rmdir
.Op Fl ps
.Ar dirname
.Ss "ksh93"
.Nm /usr/bin/rmdir
.Op Fl eps
.Ar dirname ...
.Sh DESCRIPTION
.Ss "/usr/bin/rm /usr/xpg4/bin/rm"
The
.Nm rm
utility removes the directory entry specified by each
.Ar file
argument.
If a file has no write permission and the standard input is a terminal, the
full set of permissions (in octal) for the file are printed followed by a
question mark.
This is a prompt for confirmation.
If the answer is affirmative, the file is deleted, otherwise the file remains.
.Pp
If
.Ar file
is a symbolic link, the link is removed, but the file or directory to which it
refers is not deleted.
Users do not need write permission to remove a symbolic link, provided they
have write permissions in the directory.
.Pp
If multiple
.Ar file Ns s
are specified and removal of a
.Ar file
fails for any reason,
.Nm rm
writes a diagnostic message to standard error, do nothing more to the current
.Ar file ,
and go on to any remaining
.Ar file Ns s .
.Pp
If the standard input is not a terminal, the utility operates as if the
.Fl f
option is in effect.
.Ss "/usr/bin/rmdir"
The
.Nm rmdir
utility removes the directory entry specified by each
.Ar dirname
operand, which must refer to an empty directory.
.Pp
Directories are processed in the order specified.
If a directory and a subdirectory of that directory are specified in a single
invocation of
.Nm rmdir ,
the subdirectory must be specified before the parent directory so that the
parent directory is empty when
.Nm rmdir
tries to remove it.
.Ss "ksh93"
The
.Nm rmdir
built-in in
.Nm ksh93
is associated with the
.Pa /bin
and
.Pa /usr/bin
paths.
It is invoked when
.Nm rmdir
is executed without a pathname prefix and the pathname search finds a
.Pa /bin/rmdir
or
.Pa /usr/bin/rmdir
executable.
.Pp
.Nm rmdir
deletes each given directory.
The directory must be empty and contain no entries other than
.Pa \&.
or
.Pa .. .
If a directory and a
subdirectory of that directory are specified as operands, the subdirectory must
be specified before the parent, so that the parent directory is empty when
.Nm rmdir
attempts to remove it.
.Sh OPTIONS
The following options are supported for
.Nm /usr/bin/rm
and
.Nm /usr/xpg4/bin/rm :
.Bl -hang
.It Fl r
Recursively removes directories and subdirectories in the argument list.
The directory is emptied of files and removed.
The user is normally prompted for removal of any write-protected files which
the directory contains.
The write-protected files are removed without prompting, however, if the
.Fl f
option is used, or if the standard input is not a terminal and the
.Fl i
option is not used.
.Pp
Symbolic links that are encountered with this option is not traversed.
.Pp
If the removal of a non-empty, write-protected directory is attempted, the
utility always fails (even if the
.Fl f
option is used), resulting in an error message.
.It Fl R
Same as
.Fl r
option.
.El
.Ss "/usr/bin/rm"
The following options are supported for
.Nm /usr/bin/rm
only:
.Bl -hang
.It Fl f
Removes all files (whether write-protected or not) in a directory without
prompting the user.
In a write-protected directory, however, files are never removed (whatever
their permissions are), but no messages are displayed.
If the removal of a write-protected directory is attempted, this option does
not suppress an error message.
.It Fl i
Interactive.
With this option,
.Nm rm
prompts for confirmation before
removing any files.
It overrides the
.Fl f
option and remains in effect even if the standard input is not a terminal.
.El
.Ss "/usr/xpg4/bin/rm"
The following options are supported for
.Nm /usr/xpg4/bin/rm
only:
.Bl -hang
.It Fl f
Does not prompt for confirmation.
Does not write diagnostic messages or modify the exit status in the case of
non-existent operands.
Any previous occurrences of the
.Fl i
option is ignored.
.It Fl i
Prompts for confirmation.
Any occurrences of the
.Fl f
option is ignored.
.El
.Ss "/usr/bin/rmdir"
The following options are supported for
.Nm /usr/bin/rmdir
only:
.Bl -hang
.It Fl p
Allows users to remove the directory
.Ar dirname
and its parent directories which become empty.
A message is printed to standard error if all or part of the path could not be
removed.
.It Fl s
Suppresses the message printed on the standard error when
.Fl p
is in effect.
.El
.Ss "ksh93"
The following options are supported for the
.Nm rmdir
built-in for
.Nm ksh93 :
.Pp
.Bl -hang -compact
.It Fl e
.It Fl -ignore-fail-on-non-empty
Ignore each non-empty directory failure.
.El
.Pp
.Bl -hang -compact
.It Fl p
.It Fl -parents
Remove each explicit directory argument directory that becomes empty after its
child directories are removed.
.El
.Pp
.Bl -hang -compact
.It Fl s
.It Fl -suppress
Suppress the message printed on the standard error when
.Fl p
is in effect.
.El
.Sh OPERANDS
The following operands are supported:
.Bl -tag -width Ar
.It Ar file
Specifies the pathname of a directory entry to be removed.
.It Ar dirname
Specifies the pathname of an empty directory to be removed.
.El
.Sh USAGE
See
.Xr largefile 7
for the description of the behavior of
.Nm rm
and
.Nm rmdir
when encountering files greater than or equal to 2 Gbyte (2^31 bytes).
.Sh EXIT STATUS
The following exit values are returned:
.Bl -tag -width Sy
.It Sy 0
If the
.Fl f
option was not specified, all the named directory entries were
removed; otherwise, all the existing named directory entries were removed.
.It Sy >0
An error occurred.
.El
.Ss "ksh93"
The following exit values are returned:
.Bl -tag -width Sy
.It Sy 0
Successful completion.
All directories deleted successfully.
.It Sy  >0
An error occurred.
One or more directories could not be deleted.
.El
.Sh EXAMPLES
The following examples are valid for the commands shown.
.Ss "/usr/bin/rm, /usr/xpg4/bin/rm"
.Bl -ohang
.It Sy Example 1 No Removing Directories
.Pp
The following command removes the directory entries
.Pa a.out
and
.Pa core :
.Pp
.Dl example% rm a.out core
.El
.Bl -ohang
.It Sy Example 2 No Removing a Directory without Prompting
.Pp
The following command removes the directory
.Pa junk
and all its contents, without prompting:
.Pp
.Dl example% rm -rf junk
.El
.Ss "/usr/bin/rmdir"
.Bl -ohang
.It Sy Example 3 No Removing Empty Directories
.Pp
If a directory
.Pa a
in the current directory is empty, except that it contains a directory
.Pa b ,
and
.Pa a/b
is empty except that it contains a directory
.Pa c ,
the following command removes all three directories:
.Pp
.Dl example% rmdir -p a/b/c
.El
.Sh DIAGNOSTICS
All messages are generally self-explanatory.
.Pp
It is forbidden to remove the files
.Qq Pa \&.
and
.Qq Pa ..
in order to
avoid the consequences of inadvertently doing something like the following:
.Pp
.Dl example% rm -r .*
.Pp
It is forbidden to remove the file
.Qq Pa /
in order to avoid the consequences of inadvertently doing something like:
.Pp
.Dl example% rm -rf $x/$y
.Pp
or
.Pp
.Dl example% rm -rf /$y
.Pp
when
.Va $x
and
.Va $y
expand to empty strings.
.Sh ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES
See
.Xr environ 7
for descriptions of the following environment variables that affect the
execution of
.Nm rm
and
.Nm rmdir :
.Ev LANG ,
.Ev LC_ALL ,
.Ev LC_COLLATE ,
.Ev LC_CTYPE ,
.Ev LC_MESSAGES ,
and
.Ev NLSPATH .
.Pp
Affirmative responses are processed using the extended regular expression
defined for the
.Sy yesexpr
keyword in the
.Ev LC_MESSAGES
category of the
user's locale.
The locale specified in the
.Ev LC_COLLATE
category defines
the behavior of ranges, equivalence classes, and multi-character collating
elements used in the expression defined for
.Sy yesexpr .
The locale specified in
.Ev LC_CTYPE
determines the locale for interpretation of sequences of
bytes of text data a characters, the behavior of character classes used in the
expression defined for the
.Sy yesexpr .
See
.Xr locale 7 .
.Sh INTERFACE STABILITY
.Ss "/usr/xpg4/bin/rm"
Committed
.Ss "ksh93"
The
.Nm ksh93
built-in binding to
.Pa /bin
and
.Pa /usr/bin
is Volatile.
The built-in interfaces are Uncommitted.
.Sh SEE ALSO
.Xr ksh93 1 ,
.Xr rmdir 2 ,
.Xr unlink 2 ,
.Xr attributes 7 ,
.Xr environ 7 ,
.Xr largefile 7 ,
.Xr standards 7
.Sh NOTES
A
.Fl
permits the user to mark explicitly the end of any command line options,
allowing
.Nm rm
to recognize file arguments that begin with a
.Fl .
As an aid to BSD migration,
.Nm rm
accepts
.Fl -
as a synonym for
.Fl .
This migration aid may disappear in a future release.
If a
.Fl -
and a
.Fl
both appear on the same command line, the second is interpreted as a file.