RM(1)

🌸 RM(1) — the remove page, bestie 🌸

okay so this is rm, from the General Commands Manual family, and she is lowkey the most powerful girl in your terminal 💅 read carefully, because she does not do second chances (we'll get to that in EXTRA, and yes it's giving ominous).

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✨ NAME ✨

rm — remove (unlink) the FILE(s) 🗑️✨

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🎀 SYNOPSIS 🎀

rm [OPTION]... FILE...

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💖 DESCRIPTION 💖

Remove (unlink) the FILE(s). that's it. that's the whole vibe. gone. deleted. bye bestie 👋💀

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🔥 OPTIONS 🔥

so many flags, all iconic, let's go:

• -f, --force — ignore nonexistent files and arguments, and never prompt. she's fearless, she's unbothered 💅
• -i — prompt before every removal. she's asking permission every single time, very polite, very "are you sure bestie?"
• -I — prompt once before removing more than three files, or when removing recursively. it's 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, it prompts always
  • possible values ✨:
    • always
    • once
    • 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. ngl, this one is (NOT IMPLEMENTED) 😭 she's a concept, not a promise
• --no-preserve-root — do not treat / specially. 🚨 bestie. no. absolutely unhinged behavior, do not
• --preserve-root[=<all>] — do not remove / (this is the default, thank god 💀); with all, reject any command line argument on a separate device from its parent
  • possible values:
    • all
• -r, --recursive — remove directories and their contents recursively. she goes all the way down, main character energy 👑
• -d, --dir — remove empty directories. only the empty ones, she's picky 🎀
• -v, --verbose — explain what is being done. she narrates her own life, honestly relatable 🦋
• -g, --progress — display a progress bar. ⚠️ note: this feature is not supported by GNU coreutils
• -h, --help — print help 🫶
• -V, --version — print version ⭐
• [files] — the files, obvi 💖

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🌈 EXTRA 🌈

okay important stuff, no cap:

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 🌀

so you wanna remove a file whose name starts with a -, like -foo? the shell is gonna be weird about it, so use one of these commands:

rm -- -foo

rm ./-foo

and now the serious one, listen up 🫶: 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. so like... she's gone, but not forever gone 😭. for greater assurance that the contents are truly unrecoverable, consider using shred.

⚠️ fr fr bestie: rm is not a shredder and not a trash can. no undo button, no take-backs. double-check your paths before you hit enter 💀

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👑 VERSION 👑

v(uutils coreutils) 0.12.0

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and that's the page!! 💜 mwah, stay safe out there, and remember: rm -rf / is not a personality trait 🙈✨

— signed, sealed, delivered: uutils coreutils 0.12.0, dated 2026-09-17 💖🎀🦋