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RM(1P)			   POSIX Programmer's Manual			RM(1P)

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 [−fiRr] 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  the	−f option is not specified, and either the permissions
	       of file do not permit writing and the standard input is a  ter‐
	       minal 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 stan‐
	       dard  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 equiv‐
	   alent to the rmdir() function defined in the System Interfaces vol‐
	   ume of POSIX.1‐2008 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.1‐2008 called with a path‐
	   name 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.1‐2008, Section 12.2, Utility Syntax Guidelines.

       The following options shall be supported:

       −f	 Do not prompt for confirmation. Do not write diagnostic  mes‐
		 sages	or  modify  the exit status in the case of nonexistent
		 operands. 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	 vari‐
		 ables	that are unset or null. (See the Base Definitions vol‐
		 ume of POSIX.1‐2008, Section 8.2, Internationalization	 Vari‐
		 ables	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 behav‐
		 ior  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	speci‐
       fied in the DESCRIPTION and OPTIONS sections. The prompts shall contain
       the file pathname, but their format is otherwise unspecified. The stan‐
       dard 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  con‐
	     firmation.

       >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.1‐2008. 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	imple‐
       mentations  may desire more descriptive prompts than those used on his‐
       torical 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.1‐2008	 that  provide	options	 requesting  recursive
       descent through the file hierarchy.

       The behavior of the −f option in historical versions of rm is inconsis‐
       tent.  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  sup‐
       presses	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.1‐2008 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	incon‐
       sistent	in that prompts were done to both standard output and standard
       error. This volume of POSIX.1‐2008 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	 stan‐
       dard 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 direc‐
       tory 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() function‐
       ality, per the DESCRIPTION. When removing hierarchies with  −r  or  −R,
       the prohibition on following symbolic links has to be made explicit.

FUTURE DIRECTIONS
       None.

SEE ALSO
       rmdir

       The  Base  Definitions  volume  of POSIX.1‐2008, Chapter 8, Environment
       Variables, Section 12.2, Utility Syntax Guidelines

       The  System  Interfaces	volume	of  POSIX.1‐2008,  remove(),  rmdir(),
       unlink()

COPYRIGHT
       Portions	 of  this text are reprinted and reproduced in electronic form
       from IEEE Std 1003.1, 2013 Edition, Standard for Information Technology
       --  Portable  Operating	System	Interface (POSIX), The Open Group Base
       Specifications Issue 7, Copyright (C) 2013 by the Institute of Electri‐
       cal  and	 Electronics  Engineers,  Inc  and  The	 Open Group.  (This is
       POSIX.1-2008 with the 2013 Technical Corrigendum	 1  applied.)  In  the
       event of any discrepancy between this version and the original IEEE and
       The Open Group Standard, the original IEEE and The Open Group  Standard
       is  the	referee document. The original Standard can be obtained online
       at http://www.unix.org/online.html .

       Any typographical or formatting errors that appear  in  this  page  are
       most likely to have been introduced during the conversion of the source
       files to man page format. To report such errors,	 see  https://www.ker‐
       nel.org/doc/man-pages/reporting_bugs.html .

IEEE/The Open Group		     2013				RM(1P)
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