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GNU Info (fileutils.info)rm invocation`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. The program accepts the following options. Also see Note: Common options. `-d' `--directory' Attempt to remove directories with `unlink' instead of `rmdir', 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. Note that this option will call `unlink' on the target with no additional checks, so may be useful for non-directories in cases where `stat' fails for the target. `-f' `--force' Ignore nonexistent files and never prompt the user. Ignore any previous `--interactive' (`-i') option. `-i' `--interactive' Prompt whether to remove each file. If the response does not begin with `y' or `Y', the file is skipped. Ignore any previous `--force' (`-f') option. `-r' `-R' `--recursive' Remove the contents of directories recursively. `-v' `--verbose' Print the name of each file before removing it. 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. automatically generated by info2www version 1.2.2.9 |