Rm (Unix)

The rm command in the Unix operating system is used to remove files from the file system. It is similar to the del command in MS-DOS.

Its usage is considered potentially more dangerous than equivalents in other operating systems because of the way Unix and Unix-like systems parse wildcards and names of special directories and in its non-verbose actions. A classic example:

$ rm * .o rm: cannot remove `.o': No such file or directory

Options

; -d, --directory : unlink FILE, even if it is a non-empty directory (super-user only) ; -f, --force : ignore nonexistent files, never prompt ; -i, --interactive : prompt before any removal ; -r, -R, --recursive : remove the contents of directories recursively ; -v, --verbose : explain what is being done ; --help : display help and exit ; --version : output version information and exit

To remove a file whose name starts with a `-', for example `-foo', use one of these commands:

rm -- -foo

rm ./-foo

Note that if you use rm to remove a file, it is usually possible to recover the contents of that file. If you want more assurance that the contents are truly unrecoverable, consider using shred.