xref: /netbsd/bin/rm/rm.1 (revision bf9ec67e)
1.\"	$NetBSD: rm.1,v 1.14 2002/05/02 13:14:23 enami Exp $
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37.\"	@(#)rm.1	8.5 (Berkeley) 12/5/94
38.\"
39.Dd December 5, 1994
40.Dt RM 1
41.Os
42.Sh NAME
43.Nm rm
44.Nd remove directory entries
45.Sh SYNOPSIS
46.Nm
47.Op Fl f | Fl i
48.Op Fl dPRrW
49.Ar
50.Sh DESCRIPTION
51The
52.Nm
53utility attempts to remove the non-directory type files specified on the
54command line.
55If the permissions of the file do not permit writing, and the standard
56input device is a terminal, the user is prompted (on the standard error
57output) for confirmation.
58.Pp
59The options are as follows:
60.Bl -tag -width flag
61.It Fl d
62Attempt to remove directories as well as other types of files.
63.It Fl f
64Attempt to remove the files without prompting for confirmation,
65regardless of the file's permissions.
66If the file does not exist, do not display a diagnostic message or modify
67the exit status to reflect an error.
68The
69.Fl f
70option overrides any previous
71.Fl i
72options.
73.It Fl i
74Request confirmation before attempting to remove each file, regardless of
75the file's permissions, or whether or not the standard input device is a
76terminal.
77The
78.Fl i
79option overrides any previous
80.Fl f
81options.
82.It Fl P
83Overwrite regular files before deleting them.
84Files are overwritten three times, first with the byte pattern 0xff,
85then 0x00, and then 0xff again, before they are deleted.
86.It Fl R
87Attempt to remove the file hierarchy rooted in each file argument.
88The
89.Fl R
90option implies the
91.Fl d
92option.
93If the
94.Fl i
95option is specified, the user is prompted for confirmation before
96each directory's contents are processed (as well as before the attempt
97is made to remove the directory).
98If the user does not respond affirmatively, the file hierarchy rooted in
99that directory is skipped.
100.Pp
101.It Fl r
102Equivalent to
103.Fl R .
104.It Fl W
105Attempts to undelete the named files.
106Currently, this option can only be used to recover
107files covered by whiteouts.
108.El
109.Pp
110The
111.Nm
112utility removes symbolic links, not the files referenced by the links.
113.Pp
114It is an error to attempt to remove the files ``.'' and ``..''.
115.Sh EXIT STATUS
116The
117.Nm
118utility exits 0 if all of the named files or file hierarchies were removed,
119or if the
120.Fl f
121option was specified and all of the existing files or file hierarchies were
122removed.
123If an error occurs,
124.Nm
125exits with a value \*[Gt]0.
126.Sh SEE ALSO
127.Xr rmdir 1 ,
128.Xr undelete 2 ,
129.Xr unlink 2 ,
130.Xr fts 3 ,
131.Xr symlink 7
132.Sh BUGS
133The
134.Fl P
135option assumes that the underlying file system is a fixed-block file
136system.
137UFS is a fixed-block file system, LFS is not.
138In addition, only regular files are overwritten, other types of files
139are not.
140.Sh COMPATIBILITY
141The
142.Nm
143utility differs from historical implementations in that the
144.Fl f
145option only masks attempts to remove non-existent files instead of
146masking a large variety of errors.
147.Pp
148Also, historical
149.Bx
150implementations prompted on the standard output,
151not the standard error output.
152.Sh STANDARDS
153The
154.Nm
155utility is expected to be
156.St -p1003.2
157compatible.
158