Rm
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(Difference between revisions)
(Correct the -P flag) |
(Speak a little bit more abour -P) |
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-P overwrite files (with 0xFF's, 0x00's, and 0xFF's again) before deleting them | -P overwrite files (with 0xFF's, 0x00's, and 0xFF's again) before deleting them | ||
-v be verbose | -v be verbose | ||
| + | |||
| + | ==About the -P argument== | ||
| + | |||
| + | Use this argument with extreme care : if you yant to remove a file that have hard links, the file '''will be''' overwritten and its contents will be lost, thus not accessible via the links. Example : | ||
| + | $ echo 'Hello World' > foo | ||
| + | $ ln foo bar | ||
| + | $ cat foo bar | ||
| + | Hello World | ||
| + | Hello World | ||
| + | $ rm -P foo | ||
| + | $ cat bar | ||
| + | $ Hey !! where is bar contents ?? | ||
| + | Hey, command not found | ||
See also [[rmdir]] | See also [[rmdir]] | ||
[[Category:System Commands]] | [[Category:System Commands]] | ||
Revision as of 03:13, 12 July 2005
short for remove. Seriously, be careful when using this. There is no undelete once you've unlinked a file (unless you've aliased rm to a mv script that moves files to a trash folder or something -- not recommended because you will eventually find yourself on a system that doesn't have that alias and make a mistake.
Common flags
-r recursive -- same as -R -f force -- do it and damn the consequences -d directories -i confirm before delete -P overwrite files (with 0xFF's, 0x00's, and 0xFF's again) before deleting them -v be verbose
About the -P argument
Use this argument with extreme care : if you yant to remove a file that have hard links, the file will be overwritten and its contents will be lost, thus not accessible via the links. Example :
$ echo 'Hello World' > foo $ ln foo bar $ cat foo bar Hello World Hello World $ rm -P foo $ cat bar $ Hey !! where is bar contents ?? Hey, command not found
See also rmdir
