Red Hat NETSCAPE MANAGEMENT SYSTEM 6.0 - CUSTOMIZATION User Manual download pdf (Page 281)

17.5 Copying, Moving and Renaming Files and Directories 269

[billy@localhost billy]$ rm -i piglet.txt

rm: remove ’piglet.txt’?

You can also delete ﬁles using the wildcard *, but be careful, because you can easily delete ﬁles you

didn’t intend to throw away.

To remove a ﬁle using a wildcard, you would type:

rm pig*

You can also remove more than one ﬁle in one command, as in:

rm piglet.txt sneakers.txt

Options for removing ﬁles – and directories – include:

-i – interactive. Prompts you to conﬁrm the deletion. This is good.

-f – force. Overrides interactive mode and removes the ﬁle(s) without prompting. This might

not be good, unless you know exactly what you’re doing.

-v – verbose. Shows a listing of ﬁles as they’re being removed.

-r – recursive. When removing directories, will remove all of the ﬁles and the subdirectories

of the speciﬁed directory. This can also get rid of an empty directory.

To remove directories with rm, you must specify the -r option.

For example, if you want to recursively remove the directory tigger you would type:

rm -r tigger

And if you want to combine options, such as forcing a recursive deletion, you can type:

rm -rf tigger

Tip: Be careful! rm is a powerful command, and can delete your entire system! If you’re

root and you type the simple command rm -rf / you’re sunk – like a snake eating its

tail, the command will recursively remove everything on your system.

The safer alternative to using rm for removing directories is the rmdir command. With this com-

mand, you won’t be allowed to use recursive deletions, so a directory which has ﬁles in it won’tbe

deleted.

Read the rmdir man page by typing man rmdir to ﬁnd out more about the command.

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Red Hat NETSCAPE MANAGEMENT SYSTEM 6.0 - CUSTOMIZATION User Manual Page 281