rm(1p) - phpMan

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), 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  IEEE Std 1003.1-2001 called with a pathname of the current
           file used as the path argument. If the current file is not a direc-
           tory,  rm shall perform actions equivalent to the unlink() function
           defined in the System  Interfaces  volume  of  IEEE Std 1003.1-2001
           called  with  a pathname of the current file used as the path argu-
           ment.
       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
       IEEE Std 1003.1-2001, Section 12.2, Utility Syntax Guidelines.
       The following options shall be supported:
       -f     Do not prompt for confirmation. Do not write diagnostic messages
              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  variables
              that  are  unset  or  null.  (See the Base Definitions volume of
              IEEE Std 1003.1-2001, 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 key-
              word 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  behavior
              of  character  classes  within  regular  expressions used in the
              extended regular expression defined for the yesexpr locale  key-
              word in the LC_MESSAGES category.
       LC_MESSAGES
              Determine the locale for the processing of affirmative responses
              that should be used to affect the format and contents  of  diag-
              nostic messages 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     All  of  the  named  directory  entries  for  which rm performed
              actions equivalent to the rmdir()  or  unlink()  functions  were
              removed.
       >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
       IEEE Std 1003.1-2001.  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 IEEE Std 1003.1-2001 that provide options  requesting  recur-
       sive 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 mes-
       sages 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 IEEE Std 1003.1-2001 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. His-
       torical 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  IEEE Std 1003.1-2001 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 standard 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  System  Interfaces   volume   of   IEEE Std 1003.1-2001,
       remove(), rmdir(), unlink()
COPYRIGHT
       Portions  of  this text are reprinted and reproduced in electronic form
       from IEEE Std 1003.1, 2003 Edition, Standard for Information Technology
       --  Portable  Operating  System  Interface (POSIX), The Open Group Base
       Specifications Issue 6, Copyright (C) 2001-2003  by  the  Institute  of
       Electrical  and  Electronics  Engineers, Inc and The Open Group. 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.opengroup.org/unix/online.html .

IEEE/The Open Group                  2003                               RM(1P)