Every day a Linux command: rm (5)

rm

rm command to delete a directory of one or more files or directories can also be a directory and its subdirectories subordinate all files are deleted. For the linked file, just delete the entire link file, and the original file remains unchanged

Note : Use the rm command to be extra careful. Because once a file is deleted, it can not recover it. So, before you delete a file, it is best to look at the contents of the file, determine whether you really want to delete. rm command can be particularly useful when deleting multiple file names with characters -i option, which use the file extensions. With this option, you will be asked individually to determine whether you want to delete. In this case, you must enter y and press Enter to delete the file. If you only press the Enter key or other characters, files are not deleted.

format

rm [options] [file ...]

Parameter options

parameter	Remark
-d	Hard-wired directly to delete the directory data to be deleted to 0, delete the directory
-f	Force delete files or directories;
-i	First ask the user before you delete an existing file or directory;
-r or -R	Recursive processing, all files and subdirectories in the specified directory treated together;
--preserve-root	Recursion is not the root directory;
-v	Show the detailed process of executing instructions.

Examples

• Delete files file, the system will be asked whether to delete

  Command: RM file name

  [root@VM_0_9_centos ~]# rm testFile1 
  rm: remove regular empty file testFile1?. y

• Forcibly remove the file, the system will not prompt

  Command: RM -f log1.log

  [root@VM_0_9_centos ~]# touch log1.log
  [root@VM_0_9_centos ~]# rm -f log1.log

• Delete any .log files; asking each confirmation before deleting

  Command: RM -i * .log

  [root@VM_0_9_centos ~]# touch log1.log
  [root@VM_0_9_centos ~]# touch log2.log
  [root@VM_0_9_centos ~]# rm -i *.log
  rm: remove regular empty file log1.log?. y
  rm: remove regular empty file log2.log?. y

• The test directory and all subdirectories deleted files

  Command: RM -r the Test

  [root@VM_0_9_centos ~]# mkdir test
  [root@VM_0_9_centos ~]# cd test
  [root@VM_0_9_centos test]# touch file1
  [root@VM_0_9_centos test]# touch file2
  [root@VM_0_9_centos test]# touch file3
  [root@VM_0_9_centos test]# rm -r ../test
  rm: descend into directory ./test?. y
  rm: remove regular empty file ./test/file3?. y
  rm: remove regular empty file ./test/file2?. y
  rm: remove regular empty file ./test/file1?. y
  rm: remove directory ./test?. y

• rm -rf test2 test2 command will subdirectories and delete all files in subdirectories, and not eleven confirmed

  Command: RM -rf test2

  同上，只是没有确认删除提示

• Wildcard matching delete, delete the file name of the file begins with wuzhazha

  Command: RM wuzhazha

  [root@VM_0_9_centos ~]# touch wuzhazha.txt
  [root@VM_0_9_centos ~]# touch wuzhazha1.txt
  [root@VM_0_9_centos ~]# touch wuzhazha2.txt
  [root@VM_0_9_centos ~]# rm wuzhazha*
  rm: remove regular empty file wuzhazha1.txt?. y
  rm: remove regular empty file wuzhazha2.txt?. y
  rm: remove regular empty file wuzhazha.txt?. y

reference

• Linux command Daquan

• github-tldr

• Every day a linux command: rm command