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The options are as follows:

-d

Attempt to remove directories as well as other types of files.

-f

Attempt to remove the files without prompting for confirmation, regardless of the file's permissions. If the file does not exist, do not display a diagnostic message or modify the exit status to reflect an error. The -f option overrides any previous -i options.

-i

Request confirmation before attempting to remove each file, regardless of the file's permissions, or whether or not the standard input device is a terminal. The -i option overrides any previous -f options.

-I

Request confirmation once if more than three files are being removed or if a directory is being recursively removed. This is a far less intrusive option than -i yet provides almost the same level of protection against mistakes.

-P

Overwrite regular files before deleting them. Files are overwritten three times, first with the byte pattern 0xff, then 0x00, and then 0xff again, before they are deleted. Files with multiple links will not be overwritten nor deleted unless -f is specified, a warning is generated instead.
Specifying this flag for a read only file will cause unlink to generate an error message and exit. The file will not be removed or overwritten.

-R

Attempt to remove the file hierarchy rooted in each file argument. The -R option implies the -d option. If the -i option is specified, the user is prompted for confirmation before each directory's contents are processed (as well as before the attempt is made to remove the directory). If the user does not respond affirmatively, the file hierarchy rooted in that directory is skipped.

-r

Equivalent to -R.

-v

Be verbose when deleting files, showing them as they are removed.

-W

Attempt to undelete the named files. Currently, this option can only be used to recover files covered by whiteouts in a union file system (see undelete(2)).

The unlink utility removes symbolic links, not the files referenced by the links.

It is an error to attempt to remove the files /, . or ...

When the utility is called as unlink, only one argument, which must not be a directory, may be supplied. No options may be supplied in this simple mode of operation, which performs an unlink(2) operation on the passed argument.

EXIT STATUS

The unlink utility exits 0 if all of the named files or file hierarchies were removed, or if the -f option was specified and all of the existing files or file hierarchies were removed. If an error occurs, unlink exits with a value >0.

NOTES

The unlink command uses getopt(3) to parse its arguments, which allows it to accept the '--' option which will cause it to stop processing flag options at that point. This will allow the removal of file names that begin with a dash ('-'). For example:

rm -- -filename

The same behavior can be obtained by using an absolute or relative path reference. For example:

rm /home/user/-filename

rm ./-filename

When -P is specified with -f the file will be overwritten and removed even if it has hard links.

COMPATIBILITY

The unlink utility differs from historical implementations in that the -f option only masks attempts to remove non-existent files instead of masking a large variety of errors. The -v option is non-standard and its use in scripts is not recommended.

Also, historical BSD implementations prompted on the standard output, not the standard error output.

STANDARDS

The unlink command conforms to IEEE Std 1003.2 ("POSIX.2").

The simplified unlink command conforms to Version 2 of the Single UNIX Specification.

HISTORY

A unlink command appeared in AT&T v1 .

BUGS

The -P option assumes that the underlying file system is a fixed-block file system. UFS is a fixed-block file system, LFS is not. In addition, only regular files are overwritten, other types of files are not.

RM (1)

December 26, 2006

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Main index	Section 1 (General commands)	Jump to page:		[日本語]	[한국인]	[Deutsch]	options

Main index	Section 1 (General commands)	Jump to page:		[日本語]	[한국인]	[Deutsch]	options

-d
	Attempt to remove directories as well as other types of files.
-f
	Attempt to remove the files without prompting for confirmation, regardless of the file's permissions. If the file does not exist, do not display a diagnostic message or modify the exit status to reflect an error. The -f option overrides any previous -i options.
-i
	Request confirmation before attempting to remove each file, regardless of the file's permissions, or whether or not the standard input device is a terminal. The -i option overrides any previous -f options.
-I
	Request confirmation once if more than three files are being removed or if a directory is being recursively removed. This is a far less intrusive option than -i yet provides almost the same level of protection against mistakes.
-P
	Overwrite regular files before deleting them. Files are overwritten three times, first with the byte pattern 0xff, then 0x00, and then 0xff again, before they are deleted. Files with multiple links will not be overwritten nor deleted unless -f is specified, a warning is generated instead. Specifying this flag for a read only file will cause unlink to generate an error message and exit. The file will not be removed or overwritten.
-R
	Attempt to remove the file hierarchy rooted in each file argument. The -R option implies the -d option. If the -i option is specified, the user is prompted for confirmation before each directory's contents are processed (as well as before the attempt is made to remove the directory). If the user does not respond affirmatively, the file hierarchy rooted in that directory is skipped.
-r
	Equivalent to -R.
-v
	Be verbose when deleting files, showing them as they are removed.
-W
	Attempt to undelete the named files. Currently, this option can only be used to recover files covered by whiteouts in a union file system (see undelete(2)).

Manual Pages — RM

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