RM(1) User Commands RM(1)

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

ksh93
/usr/bin/rmdir [-eps] 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 is affirmative, the file is deleted,
otherwise the file remains.

If 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.

If multiple files are specified and removal of a file fails for any
reason, rm writes 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 operates as if the
-f option is in effect.

/usr/bin/rmdir
The rmdir utility removes the directory entry specified by each dirname
operand, which must refer to an empty directory.

Directories are 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 is empty when rmdir tries to remove it.

ksh93
The rmdir built-in in ksh93 is associated with the /bin and /usr/bin
paths. It is invoked when rmdir is executed without a pathname prefix
and the pathname search finds a /bin/rmdir or /usr/bin/rmdir
executable.

rmdir deletes each given directory. The directory must be empty and
contain no entries other than . or ... 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 rmdir attempts to remove it.

OPTIONS

The following options are supported for /usr/bin/rm and
/usr/xpg4/bin/rm:

-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
-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 is not
traversed.

If the removal of a non-empty, write-protected directory is
attempted, the utility always fails (even if the -f option is
used), resulting in an error message.

-R Same as -r option.

/usr/bin/rm
The following options are supported for /usr/bin/rm only:

-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.

-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.

/usr/xpg4/bin/rm
The following options are supported for /usr/xpg4/bin/rm only:

-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 is
ignored.

-i Prompts for confirmation. Any occurrences of the -f option is
ignored.

/usr/bin/rmdir
The following options are supported for /usr/bin/rmdir only:

-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.

ksh93
The following options are supported for the rmdir built-in for ksh93:

-e
--ignore-fail-on-non-empty Ignore each non-empty directory failure.

-p
--parents Remove each explicit directory argument directory that
becomes empty after its child directories are removed.

-s
--suppress Suppress the message printed on the standard error when -p
is in effect.

OPERANDS

The following operands are supported:

file Specifies the pathname of a directory entry to be
removed.

dirname Specifies the pathname of an empty directory to be
removed.

USAGE

See largefile(7) for the description of the behavior of rm and rmdir
when encountering files greater than or equal to 2 Gbyte (2^31 bytes).

EXIT STATUS

The following exit values are returned:

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.

ksh93
The following exit values are returned:

0 Successful completion. All directories deleted successfully.

>0 An error occurred. One or more directories could not be
deleted.

EXAMPLES

The following examples are valid for the commands shown.

/usr/bin/rm, /usr/xpg4/bin/rm
Example 1 Removing Directories

The following command removes the directory entries a.out and core:

example% rm a.out core

Example 2 Removing a Directory without Prompting

The following command removes the directory junk and all its contents,
without prompting:

example% rm -rf junk

/usr/bin/rmdir
Example 3 Removing Empty Directories

If a directory a in the current directory is empty, except that it
contains a directory b, and a/b is empty except that it contains a
directory c, the following command removes all three directories:

example% rmdir -p a/b/c

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.

ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES

See environ(7) 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.

Affirmative responses are processed using the extended regular
expression defined for the yesexpr keyword in the LC_MESSAGES category
of the user's locale. The locale specified in the LC_COLLATE category
defines the behavior of ranges, equivalence classes, and multi-
character collating elements used in the expression defined for
yesexpr. The locale specified in 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
yesexpr. See locale(7).

INTERFACE STABILITY

/usr/xpg4/bin/rm
Committed

ksh93
The ksh93 built-in binding to /bin and /usr/bin is Volatile. The
built-in interfaces are Uncommitted.

SEE ALSO

ksh93(1), rmdir(2), unlink(2), attributes(7), environ(7), largefile(7),
standards(7)

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 accepts -- 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 is interpreted as a file.

illumos February 21, 2023 illumos