rm

Delete files and folders

What it does

rm deletes files. The terminal has no trash: what you delete cannot be brought back by ordinary means.

Folders are deleted with -r, together with everything inside. -i asks for confirmation for every file, while -f does the opposite: no questions, and no complaints about missing files.

Careful. rm deletes for good, with no trash. Take special care with rm -rf and patterns like *: first check what they match by running ls with the same argument.

Syntax

rm <file>…
rm -r <folder>
rm -i <file>

Examples

• Delete the file notes.txt

  rm notes.txt

  • rm — remove (there is no trash bin!)
  • notes.txt — file

• Delete the build folder with everything in it

  rm -r build

  same as: rm -R build, rm --recursive build

  • rm — remove
  • -r — recursively — needed for folders
  • build — folder

Related commands

• mv — Move or rename a file
• cp — Copy a file or a folder
• find — Find files and folders by name, type and more

Practise · All commands