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rm
: Remove files or directories
rm
removes each given file. By default, it does not remove
directories. Synopsis:
rm [option]... [file]... |
If a file is unwritable, standard input is a terminal, and the `-f'
or `--force' option is not given, or the `-i' or
`--interactive' option is given, rm
prompts the user
for whether to remove the file. If the response does not begin with
`y' or `Y', the file is skipped.
Warning: If you use rm
to remove a file, it is usually
possible to recover the contents of that file. If you want more assurance
that the contents are truly unrecoverable, consider using shred
.
The program accepts the following options. Also see 2. Common options.
unlink
function rather than
the rmdir
function, and
don't require a directory to be empty before trying to unlink it. This works
only if you have appropriate privileges and if your operating system supports
unlink
for directories. Because unlinking a directory causes any files
in the deleted directory to become unreferenced, it is wise to fsck
the filesystem after doing this.
One common question is how to remove files whose names begin with a
`-'. GNU rm
, like every program that uses the getopt
function to parse its arguments, lets you use the `--' option to
indicate that all following arguments are non-options. To remove a file
called `-f' in the current directory, you could type either:
rm -- -f |
or:
rm ./-f |
The Unix rm
program's use of a single `-' for this purpose
predates the development of the getopt standard syntax.
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