.\" DO NOT MODIFY THIS FILE!  It was generated by help2man 1.47.3.
.TH RM "1" "January 2026" "GNU coreutils 8.32" "User Commands"
.SH NAME
rm \- remove files or directories
.SH SYNOPSIS
.B rm
[\fI\,OPTION\/\fR]... [\fI\,FILE\/\fR]...
.SH DESCRIPTION
This manual page
documents the GNU version of
.BR rm .
.B rm
removes each specified file.  By default, it does not remove
directories.
.P
If the \fI\-I\fR or \fI\-\-interactive=once\fR option is given,
and there are more than three files or the \fI\-r\fR, \fI\-R\fR,
or \fI\-\-recursive\fR are given, then
.B rm
prompts the user for whether to proceed with the entire operation.  If
the response is not affirmative, the entire command is aborted.
.P
Otherwise, if a file is unwritable, standard input is a terminal, and
the \fI\-f\fR or \fI\-\-force\fR option is not given, or the
\fI\-i\fR or \fI\-\-interactive=always\fR option is given,
.B rm
prompts the user for whether to remove the file.  If the response is
not affirmative, the file is skipped.
.SH OPTIONS
.PP
Remove (unlink) the FILE(s).
.TP
\fB\-f\fR, \fB\-\-force\fR
ignore nonexistent files and arguments, never prompt
.TP
\fB\-i\fR
prompt before every removal
.TP
\fB\-I\fR
prompt once before removing more than three files, or
when removing recursively; less intrusive than \fB\-i\fR,
while still giving protection against most mistakes
.TP
\fB\-\-interactive\fR[=\fI\,WHEN\/\fR]
prompt according to WHEN: never, once (\fB\-I\fR), or
always (\fB\-i\fR); without WHEN, prompt always
.TP
\fB\-\-one\-file\-system\fR
when removing a hierarchy recursively, skip any
directory that is on a file system different from
that of the corresponding command line argument
.TP
\fB\-\-no\-preserve\-root\fR
do not treat '/' specially
.TP
\fB\-\-preserve\-root\fR[=\fI\,all\/\fR]
do not remove '/' (default);
with 'all', reject any command line argument
on a separate device from its parent
.TP
\fB\-r\fR, \fB\-R\fR, \fB\-\-recursive\fR
remove directories and their contents recursively
.TP
\fB\-d\fR, \fB\-\-dir\fR
remove empty directories
.TP
\fB\-v\fR, \fB\-\-verbose\fR
explain what is being done
.TP
\fB\-\-help\fR
display this help and exit
.TP
\fB\-\-version\fR
output version information and exit
.PP
By default, rm does not remove directories.  Use the \fB\-\-recursive\fR (\fB\-r\fR or \fB\-R\fR)
option to remove each listed directory, too, along with all of its contents.
.PP
To remove a file whose name starts with a '\-', for example '\-foo',
use one of these commands:
.IP
rm \fB\-\-\fR \fB\-foo\fR
.IP
rm ./\-foo
.PP
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.
.SH AUTHOR
Written by Paul Rubin, David MacKenzie, Richard M. Stallman,
and Jim Meyering.
.SH "REPORTING BUGS"
GNU coreutils online help: <https://www.gnu.org/software/coreutils/>
.br
Report any translation bugs to <https://translationproject.org/team/>
.SH COPYRIGHT
Copyright \(co 2020 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
License GPLv3+: GNU GPL version 3 or later <https://gnu.org/licenses/gpl.html>.
.br
This is free software: you are free to change and redistribute it.
There is NO WARRANTY, to the extent permitted by law.
.SH "SEE ALSO"
unlink(1), unlink(2), chattr(1), shred(1)
.PP
.br
Full documentation <https://www.gnu.org/software/coreutils/rm>
.br
or available locally via: info \(aq(coreutils) rm invocation\(aq
