The
rm utility attempts to remove the non-directory type files specified on the command line. If the permissions of the file do not permit writing, and the standard input device is a terminal, the user is prompted (on the standard error output) for confirmation.
The options are as follows:
-d
Attempt to remove directories as well as other types of files.
-f
Attempt to remove the files without prompting for confirmation, regardless of the file's permissions. If the file does not exist, do not display a diagnostic message or modify the exit status to reflect an error. The -f option overrides any previous -i options.
-i
Request confirmation before attempting to remove each file, regardless of the file's permissions, or whether or not the standard input device is a terminal. The -i option overrides any previous -f options.
-P
Overwrite regular files before deleting them. Files are overwritten three times, first with the byte pattern 0xff, then 0x00, and then with random data, before they are deleted. Some care is taken to ensure that the data are actually written to disk, but this cannot be guaranteed, even on traditional filesystems; on log-structured filesystems or if any block-journaling scheme is in use, this option is completely useless. If the file cannot be overwritten, it will not be removed.
-R
Attempt to remove the file hierarchy rooted in each file argument. The
-R option implies the
-d option. If the
-i option is specified, the user is prompted for confirmation before each directory's contents are processed (as well as before the attempt is made to remove the directory). If the user does not respond affirmatively, the file hierarchy rooted in that directory is skipped.
-v
Cause rm to be verbose, showing files as they are processed.
-W
Attempts to undelete the named files. Currently, this option can only be used to recover files covered by whiteouts.
The
rm utility removes symbolic links, not the files referenced by the links.
It is an error to attempt to remove the files ``.'' and ``..''.