rmdir(1)
Name | Synopsis | Description | Options | Operands | Usage | Examples | Environment Variables | Exit Status | Attributes | See Also | Diagnostics | Notes
Name
- rm, rmdir– remove directory entries
Synopsis
/usr/bin/rm [-f] [-i] file...
/usr/bin/rm -rR [-f] [-i] dirname... [file]...
/usr/xpg4/bin/rm [-fiRr] file...
/usr/bin/rmdir [-ps] dirname...
Description
/usr/bin/rm /usr/xpg4/bin/rm
The rm utility removes the directory entry specified by each 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 begins with y (for yes), the file is deleted, otherwise the file remains.
If file is a symbolic link, the link will be removed, but the file or directory to which it refers will not be deleted. Users do not need write permission to remove a symbolic link, provided they have write permissions in the directory.
If multiple files are specified and removal of a file fails for any reason, rm will write a diagnostic message to standard error, do nothing more to the current file, and go on to any remaining files.
If the standard input is not a terminal, the utility will operate as if the -f option is in effect.
/usr/bin/rmdir
The rmdir utility will remove the directory entry specified by each dirname operand, which must refer to an empty directory.
Directories will be processed in the order specified. If a directory and a subdirectory of that directory are specified in a single invocation of rmdir, the subdirectory must be specified before the parent directory so that the parent directory will be empty when rmdir tries to remove it.
Options
- -r
-
Recursively removes directories and subdirectories in the argument list. The directory will be 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 -f option is used, or if the standard input is not a terminal and the -i option is not used.
Symbolic links that are encountered with this option will not be traversed.
If the removal of a non-empty, write-protected directory is attempted, the utility will always fail (even if the -f option is used), resulting in an error message.
- -R
-
Same as -r option.
- -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 will not suppress an error message.
- -i
-
Interactive. With this option, rm prompts for confirmation before removing any files. It overrides the -f option and remains in effect even if the standard input is not a terminal.
- -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 -i option will be ignored.
- -i
-
Prompts for confirmation. Any occurrences of the -f option will be ignored.
- -p
-
Allows users to remove the directory 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.
- -s
-
Suppresses the message printed on the standard error when -p is in effect.
The following options are supported for /usr/bin/rm and /usr/xpg4/bin/rm:
/usr/bin/rm
The following options are supported for /usr/bin/rm only:
/usr/xpg4/bin/rm
The following options are supported for /usr/xpg4/bin/rm only:
/usr/bin/rmdir
The following options are supported for /usr/bin/rmdir only:
Operands
- file
-
A path name of a directory entry to be removed.
- dirname
-
A path name of an empty directory to be removed.
The following operands are supported:
Usage
See largefile(5) for the description of the behavior of rm and rmdir when encountering files greater than or equal to 2 Gbyte ( 231 bytes).
Examples
The following examples are valid for the commands shown.
/usr/bin/rm /usr/xpg4/bin/rm
Example 1 Removing directories
The following command:
example% rm a.out core |
removes the directory entries a.out and core.
Example 2 Removing a directory without prompting
The following command:
example% rm -rf junk |
removes the directory junk and all its contents, without prompting.
/usr/bin/rmdir
Environment Variables
See environ(5) for descriptions of the following environment variables that affect the execution of rm and rmdir: LANG, LC_ALL, LC_COLLATE, LC_CTYPE, LC_MESSAGES, and NLSPATH.
Exit Status
- 0
-
If the -f option was not specified, all the named directory entries were removed; otherwise, all the existing named directory entries were removed.
- >0
-
An error occurred.
The following exit values are returned:
Attributes
See attributes(5) for descriptions of the following attributes:
/usr/bin/rm /usr/bin/rmdir
/usr/xpg4/bin/rm
See Also
Diagnostics
All messages are generally self-explanatory.
It is forbidden to remove the files “.” and “..” in order to avoid the consequences of inadvertently doing something like the following:
example% rm -r .* |
It is forbidden to remove the file “/” in order to avoid the consequences of inadvertently doing something like:
example% rm -rf $x/$y |
or
example% rm -rf /$y |
when $x and $y expand to empty strings.
Notes
A - permits the user to mark explicitly the end of any command line options, allowing rm to recognize file arguments that begin with a -. As an aid to BSD migration, rm will accept - - as a synonym for -. This migration aid may disappear in a future release. If a - - and a - both appear on the same command line, the second will be interpreted as a file.
Name | Synopsis | Description | Options | Operands | Usage | Examples | Environment Variables | Exit Status | Attributes | See Also | Diagnostics | Notes
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