# rm

## PROLOG



           This manual page is part of the POSIX Programmer's Manual.  The
           Linux implementation of this interface may differ (consult the
           corresponding Linux manual page for details of Linux behavior), or
           the interface may not be implemented on Linux.
    


## NAME



           rm — remove directory entries
    


## SYNOPSIS



           rm **[** -iRr**]**_file_...
    
           rm -f **[** -iRr**] [**_file_...**]**
    


## DESCRIPTION



           The _rm_ utility shall remove the directory entry specified by each
           _file_ argument.
    
           If either of the files dot or dot-dot are specified as the
           basename portion of an operand (that is, the final pathname
           component) or if an operand resolves to the root directory, _rm_
           shall write a diagnostic message to standard error and do nothing
           more with such operands.
    
           For each _file_ the following steps shall be taken:
    
            1. If the _file_ does not exist:
    
                a. If the **-f** option is not specified, _rm_ shall write a
                   diagnostic message to standard error.
    
                b. Go on to any remaining _files_.
    
            2. If _file_ is of type directory, the following steps shall be
               taken:
    
                a. If neither the **-R** option nor the **-r** option is specified,
                   _rm_ shall write a diagnostic message to standard error, do
                   nothing more with _file_ , and go on to any remaining files.
    
                b. If _file_ is an empty directory, _rm_ may skip to step 2d.  If
                   the **-f** option is not specified, and either the permissions
                   of _file_ do not permit writing and the standard input is a
                   terminal or the **-i** option is specified, _rm_ shall write a
                   prompt to standard error and read a line from the standard
                   input. If the response is not affirmative, _rm_ shall do
                   nothing more with the current file and go on to any
                   remaining files.
    
                c. For each entry contained in _file_ , other than dot or dot-
                   dot, the four steps listed here (1 to 4) shall be taken
                   with the entry as if it were a _file_ operand. The _rm_
                   utility shall not traverse directories by following
                   symbolic links into other parts of the hierarchy, but
                   shall remove the links themselves.
    
                d. If the **-i** option is specified, _rm_ shall write a prompt to
                   standard error and read a line from the standard input. If
                   the response is not affirmative, _rm_ shall do nothing more
                   with the current file, and go on to any remaining files.
    
            3. If _file_ is not of type directory, the **-f** option is not
               specified, and either the permissions of _file_ do not permit
               writing and the standard input is a terminal or the **-i** option
               is specified, _rm_ shall write a prompt to the standard error
               and read a line from the standard input. If the response is
               not affirmative, _rm_ shall do nothing more with the current
               file and go on to any remaining files.
    
            4. If the current file is a directory, _rm_ shall perform actions
               equivalent to the _rmdir_() function defined in the System
               Interfaces volume of POSIX.1‐2017 called with a pathname of
               the current file used as the _path_ argument. If the current
               file is not a directory, _rm_ shall perform actions equivalent
               to the _unlink_() function defined in the System Interfaces
               volume of POSIX.1‐2017 called with a pathname of the current
               file used as the _path_ argument.
    
               If this fails for any reason, _rm_ shall write a diagnostic
               message to standard error, do nothing more with the current
               file, and go on to any remaining files.
    
           The _rm_ utility shall be able to descend to arbitrary depths in a
           file hierarchy, and shall not fail due to path length limitations
           (unless an operand specified by the user exceeds system
           limitations).
    


## OPTIONS



           The _rm_ utility shall conform to the Base Definitions volume of
           POSIX.1‐2017, _Section 12.2_ , _Utility Syntax Guidelines_.
    
           The following options shall be supported:
    
           **-f** Do not prompt for confirmation. Do not write diagnostic
                     messages or modify the exit status in the case of no
                     file operands, or in the case of operands that do not
                     exist. Any previous occurrences of the **-i** option shall
                     be ignored.
    
           **-i** Prompt for confirmation as described previously. Any
                     previous occurrences of the **-f** option shall be ignored.
    
           **-R** Remove file hierarchies. See the DESCRIPTION.
    
           **-r** Equivalent to **-R**.
    


## OPERANDS



           The following operand shall be supported:
    
           _file_      A pathname of a directory entry to be removed.
    


## STDIN



           The standard input shall be used to read an input line in response
           to each prompt specified in the STDOUT section. Otherwise, the
           standard input shall not be used.
    


## INPUT FILES



           None.
    


## ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES



           The following environment variables shall affect the execution of
           _rm_ :
    
           _LANG_      Provide a default value for the internationalization
                     variables that are unset or null. (See the Base
                     Definitions volume of POSIX.1‐2017, _Section 8.2_ ,
                     _Internationalization Variables_ for the precedence of
                     internationalization variables used to determine the
                     values of locale categories.)
    
           _LC_ALL_    If set to a non-empty string value, override the values
                     of all the other internationalization variables.
    
           _LC_COLLATE_
                     Determine the locale for the behavior of ranges,
                     equivalence classes, and multi-character collating
                     elements used in the extended regular expression defined
                     for the **yesexpr** locale keyword in the _LC_MESSAGES_
                     category.
    
           _LC_CTYPE_  Determine the locale for the interpretation of sequences
                     of bytes of text data as characters (for example,
                     single-byte as opposed to multi-byte characters in
                     arguments) and the behavior of character classes within
                     regular expressions used in the extended regular
                     expression defined for the **yesexpr** locale keyword in the
                     _LC_MESSAGES_ category.
    
           _LC_MESSAGES_
                     Determine the locale used to process affirmative
                     responses, and the locale used to affect the format and
                     contents of diagnostic messages and prompts written to
                     standard error.
    
           _NLSPATH_   Determine the location of message catalogs for the
                     processing of _LC_MESSAGES_.
    


## ASYNCHRONOUS EVENTS



           Default.
    


## STDOUT



           Not used.
    


## STDERR



           Prompts shall be written to standard error under the conditions
           specified in the DESCRIPTION and OPTIONS sections. The prompts
           shall contain the _file_ pathname, but their format is otherwise
           unspecified. The standard error also shall be used for diagnostic
           messages.
    


## OUTPUT FILES



           None.
    


## EXTENDED DESCRIPTION



           None.
    


## EXIT STATUS



           The following exit values shall be returned:
    
            0    Each directory entry was successfully removed, unless its
                 removal was canceled by a non-affirmative response to a
                 prompt for confirmation.
    
           >0    An error occurred.
    


## CONSEQUENCES OF ERRORS



           Default.
    
           _The following sections are informative._
    


## APPLICATION USAGE



           The _rm_ utility is forbidden to remove the names dot and dot-dot in
           order to avoid the consequences of inadvertently doing something
           like:
    
               rm -r .*
    
           Some implementations do not permit the removal of the last link to
           an executable binary file that is being executed; see the **[EBUSY]**
           error in the _unlink_() function defined in the System Interfaces
           volume of POSIX.1‐2017. Thus, the _rm_ utility can fail to remove
           such files.
    
           The **-i** option causes _rm_ to prompt and read the standard input even
           if the standard input is not a terminal, but in the absence of **-i**
           the mode prompting is not done when the standard input is not a
           terminal.
    


## EXAMPLES



            1. The following command:
    
                   rm a.out core
    
               removes the directory entries: **a.out** and **core**.
    
            2. The following command:
    
                   rm -Rf junk
    
               removes the directory **junk** and all its contents, without
               prompting.
    


## RATIONALE



           For absolute clarity, paragraphs (2b) and (3) in the DESCRIPTION
           of _rm_ describing the behavior when prompting for confirmation,
           should be interpreted in the following manner:
    
               if ((NOT f_option) AND
                   ((not_writable AND input_is_terminal) OR i_option))
    
           The exact format of the interactive prompts is unspecified. Only
           the general nature of the contents of prompts are specified
           because implementations may desire more descriptive prompts than
           those used on historical implementations. Therefore, an
           application not using the **-f** option, or using the **-i** option,
           relies on the system to provide the most suitable dialog directly
           with the user, based on the behavior specified.
    
           The **-r** option is historical practice on all known systems. The
           synonym **-R** option is provided for consistency with the other
           utilities in this volume of POSIX.1‐2017 that provide options
           requesting recursive descent through the file hierarchy.
    
           The behavior of the **-f** option in historical versions of _rm_ is
           inconsistent. In general, along with ``forcing'' the unlink
           without prompting for permission, it always causes diagnostic
           messages to be suppressed and the exit status to be unmodified for
           nonexistent operands and files that cannot be unlinked. In some
           versions, however, the **-f** option suppresses usage messages and
           system errors as well.  Suppressing such messages is not a service
           to either shell scripts or users.
    
           It is less clear that error messages regarding files that cannot
           be unlinked (removed) should be suppressed. Although this is
           historical practice, this volume of POSIX.1‐2017 does not permit
           the **-f** option to suppress such messages.
    
           When given the **-r** and **-i** options, historical versions of _rm_ prompt
           the user twice for each directory, once before removing its
           contents and once before actually attempting to delete the
           directory entry that names it. This allows the user to ``prune''
           the file hierarchy walk. Historical versions of _rm_ were
           inconsistent in that some did not do the former prompt for
           directories named on the command line and others had obscure
           prompting behavior when the **-i** option was specified and the
           permissions of the file did not permit writing. The POSIX Shell
           and Utilities _rm_ differs little from historic practice, but does
           require that prompts be consistent. Historical versions of _rm_ were
           also inconsistent in that prompts were done to both standard
           output and standard error. This volume of POSIX.1‐2017 requires
           that prompts be done to standard error, for consistency with _cp_
           and _mv_ , and to allow historical extensions to _rm_ that provide an
           option to list deleted files on standard output.
    
           The _rm_ utility is required to descend to arbitrary depths so that
           any file hierarchy may be deleted. This means, for example, that
           the _rm_ utility cannot run out of file descriptors during its
           descent (that is, if the number of file descriptors is limited, _rm_
           cannot be implemented in the historical fashion where one file
           descriptor is used per directory level). Also, _rm_ is not permitted
           to fail because of path length restrictions, unless an operand
           specified by the user is longer than {PATH_MAX}.
    
           The _rm_ utility removes symbolic links themselves, not the files
           they refer to, as a consequence of the dependence on the _unlink_()
           functionality, per the DESCRIPTION. When removing hierarchies with
           **-r** or **-R** , the prohibition on following symbolic links has to be
           made explicit.
    


## FUTURE DIRECTIONS



           None.
    


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