RM(1)                       General Commands Manual                      RM(1)

NAME
       rm - Remove (unlink) the FILE(s)

SYNOPSIS
       rm [OPTION]... FILE...

DESCRIPTION
       Remove (unlink) the FILE(s)

OPTIONS
       -f, --force
              ignore nonexistent files and arguments, never prompt

       -i     prompt before every removal

       -I     prompt once before removing more than three files, or when
              removing recursively.  Less intrusive than -i, while still
              giving some protection against most mistakes

       --interactive[=<WHEN>]
              prompt according to WHEN: never, once (-I), or always (-i).
              Without WHEN, prompts always

              Possible values:

                     o always

                     o once

                     o never

       --one-file-system
              when removing a hierarchy recursively, skip any directory that
              is on a file system different from that of the corresponding
              command line argument (NOT IMPLEMENTED)

       --no-preserve-root
              do not treat '/' specially

       --preserve-root[=<all>]
              do not remove '/' (default); with 'all', reject any command line
              argument on a separate device from its parent

              Possible values:

                     o all

       -r, --recursive
              remove directories and their contents recursively

       -d, --dir
              remove empty directories

       -v, --verbose
              explain what is being done

       -g, --progress
              display a progress bar. Note: this feature is not supported by
              GNU coreutils.

       -h, --help
              Print help

       -V, --version
              Print version

       [files]


EXTRA
       By default, rm does not remove directories. Use the --recursive (-r or
       -R) option to remove each listed directory, too, along with all of its
       contents

       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 might be possible to
       recover some of its contents, given sufficient expertise and/or time.
       For greater assurance that the contents are truly unrecoverable,
       consider using shred.

VERSION
       v(uutils coreutils) 0.11.0

                                  2026-09-01                             RM(1)