rm

rm

rm  is used to remove files or directories. It can be  used interactively to ask user input while removing  multiple files or  the contents of a  directory.

A great care has to be taken before running rm command. There is no way to recover the files which are removed unless they were backed up on tape.

Use rm <filename> to remove these files.

Example 1)

To remove multiple files with a common keyword.

/home/jenny$ls   city_DETAIL*.lst

City_DETAIL_MUM.lst

City_DETAIL_DEL.lst

City_DETAIL_BLR.lst

City_DETAIL_KOL.lst

City_DETAIL-ALL

..

To remove all these files except  City_DETAIL-ALL   enter

/home/jenny$rm  City_DETAIL_???.lst

If the  file does not belong to the current user, or if the file does not have write permissions, the

rm command asks you before removing ,i:e

rm: remove City_DETAIL_KOL.lst??.lst

If you do not want to answer to  this  question to all the files, use –f option to remove forcefully.

rm  -f  City_DETAIL_???.lst

Example 2)

To remove directories and files use –rf option

/home/jenny$rm  -rf   FILMS

This will remove all the  sub directories of  and the directory itself. This command is also same as

cd  /; rm –rf  home/jenny/FILMS

remember that you cannot remove a directory  if  it  is  the  path of  your working directory or a parent when you are inside its subdirectories.

eg: both of these  don’t work.

/home/jenny /FILMS$ rm   -rf    /home/jenny /FILMS             #Does not work

/home/jenny /FILMS/K3g$rm   -rf   /home/jenny /FILMS   #Does not work

To view the files which are being removed when files are removed in bulk.

Suppose you have a file containing the list of files to be removed. then

/home/jenny$ head file_to_remove_list

Jj12_2.txt

Df003.log

Awer_cat.lst

Sdifre.post

Mail34.log

TAB/Hourwise_list.doc

Sequence.log

Created/Sqlldr.bad

OLD_FILE/Jenny_old.log

Hearts_jai.mkv

home/jenny$sed  ‘s/^/rm  -ef  /g’  file_to_remove_list  > file_to_remove_list.sh

home/jenny$chmod  +x   file_to_remove_list.sh

/home/jenny$./ file_to_remove_list.sh

removing Jj12_2.txt

removing Df003.log

removing Awer_cat.lst

removing Sdifre.post

removing Mail34.log

removing TAB/Hourwise_list.doc

removing Sequence.log

removing Created/Sqlldr.bad

removing OLD_FILE/Jenny_old.log

removing Hearts_jai.mkv

/home/jenny$

Example 4)

To remove  files interactively use  -i option.

/home/jenny$ rm    -ir   FILMS

rm: remove  FILMS/ Schindler's List ?y

rm: remove  FILMS/ Chinatown? y

rm: remove  FILMS/ Taxi Driver?y

rm: remove  FILMS/ The Sixth Sense?n

/home/jenny$

y  and n are inputs given by you to remove or  not to  remove resp.