Linux rm Command

Using the “rm” linux command allows you to delete a file or a directory. Knowing the options will help you in the long run and might prevent you from removing your entire hard drive!

Check the rm options:

-r      Recursive. Deletes directories as well as files

-f      Force remove without prompt.

-i      Interactively delete each file. Useful if you want to check before you remove!

Some examples would be:

# force delete a directory
rm -rf some-directory

# interactive
rm -i some-file-not-sure-about

It might be useful to add in a trash command that you can use which will place items in a trash which is an extra step before the files or directories are removed permanently:

# mac os
trash() { mv -fv "$@" ~/.Trash/ ; }

# linux
alias trash='mkdir -p "$HOME/.trash" && mv -b -t "$HOME/.trash"'