Remove file without asking

Question

How can I remove a file without asking the user if he agrees to delete the file? I am writing shell script and use rm function, but it asks "remove regular file?" and I really don't need this.

rm doesn't show a "remove regular file?" prompt by default. You must have it aliased to rm -i, or defined as a function. I'm surprised that the alias is visible inside your script. Are you executing the script (./foo.sh) or sourcing it (. foo.sh or source foo.sh)? — Keith Thompson, Oct 12 '11 at 19:56

score 149 · Accepted Answer · answered Oct 12 '11 at 19:30

149

You might have rm aliased to rm -i so try this:

/bin/rm -f file.log

To see your aliases you can run alias.

answered Oct 12 '11 at 19:30

chown

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15
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10

Alternatively, use command rm ... or \rm ... to skip the alias/function – glenn jackman Oct 12 '11 at 20:26
6

It's been argued that having rm aliased to rm -i is a bad idea. The rm command, by default, silently removes the named file. By aliasing it to rm -i, you can get into the habit of not checking carefully before pressing Enter, depending on the interactive prompt to save you. Then you type rm some-important-file in an environment without the alias. – Keith Thompson Oct 12 '11 at 21:25
@Keith That is very true, i only personally alias rm to rm -v – chown Oct 12 '11 at 21:33
1

If "rm" is a function (instead of an alias), this answer should work. And the bash unset command might be interesting – Xen2050 Feb 25 '15 at 14:15
This does not work for removing more than 100 files... – Sephethus Nov 11 '20 at 19:17

score 85 · Answer 2 · edited Jan 18 '17 at 18:16

85

The force flag removes all prompts;

rm -f {file}

edited Jan 18 '17 at 18:16

chenrui333

103

answered Oct 12 '11 at 19:30

lynks

1,851

4

This is what I am looking for, not the accepted answer. – gsamaras Dec 14 '15 at 13:12

score 44 · Answer 3 · answered Oct 12 '11 at 19:30

44

May the force be with you - rm -f

answered Oct 12 '11 at 19:30

manojlds

2,178

I upvoted both the comment AND the answer just because someone actually found a sense of humor on SO... – Mac Apr 18 '19 at 16:53

score 9 · Answer 4 · answered Oct 12 '11 at 20:52

9

the yes program repeatedly replies yes to any prompts. so you can pipe it into the interactive rm program to get the desired effect too.

yes | rm <filename>

conversely, if you want to not do something interactive, you can do

yes n | <something interactive>

and that will repeat 'n' on the input stream (effectively answering no to questions)

answered Oct 12 '11 at 20:52

mholm815

226

The yes n option is not working for me. While I use yes n | rm file.txt, it actually removes the file even though the file is right protected. – iammilind Dec 08 '15 at 06:07

score 7 · Answer 5 · edited Jul 28 '16 at 19:57

7

\rm file

Backslash \ bypasses aliases.

edited Jul 28 '16 at 19:57

DavidPostill

156,873

answered Jul 28 '16 at 12:15

teknopaul

409

score 5 · Answer 6 · edited Mar 28 '13 at 23:35

5

If you have the required permissions to delete the file and you don't want to be prompted, do the following (-f = force):

rm -f file

If you don't have permissions to the file, you will need to use:

sudo rm -f file

edited Mar 28 '13 at 23:35

Brad Koch

151

answered Oct 12 '11 at 19:31

Kassym Dorsel

436

1

The "remove regular file?" prompt implies that it's not a permissions problem. – Keith Thompson Oct 12 '11 at 21:23

score 5 · Answer 7 · answered Oct 12 '11 at 20:13

5

Within a shell script, you would want to use rm -f <filename> but you also have the option of getting rid of the implicit -i option for your environment by entering unalias rm in your shell (or profile).

answered Oct 12 '11 at 20:13

Musannif Zahir

151

unalias rm doesn't work in CentOS? Amazon Linux? – Suncatcher Oct 21 '19 at 20:42

score 1 · Answer 8 · answered Mar 26 '17 at 13:45

1

Apart of using -f parameter, alternatively you can use find command instead, e.g.

find -name file.log -delete

answered Mar 26 '17 at 13:45

kenorb

25,417

score 1 · Answer 9 · answered Aug 12 '19 at 07:47

1

My favourite way to do this is simply use command command in bash, just the same way you use sudo. This will run your command without aliases, just like running it by /bin/rm (probably rm is aliased as rm -i).

Example:

command rm -f /tmp/file.txt

answered Aug 12 '19 at 07:47

PatrykMilewski

111

score 0 · Answer 10 · answered Mar 29 '18 at 14:28

If your rm is aliased to rm -i, then use unalias rm;

Do not use rm -f directly unless you really want to remove a lot of write-protected files. There must be a very good reason to use -f.

However, if you have a lot of write-protected files, you might prefer to rsync -r --delete empty/ removed_dir/ for a faster speed.

score 0 · Answer 11 · answered Sep 02 '19 at 14:37

0

rm -Rf <folder-to-be-deleted>

-R: Recursive f: force, no prompt

answered Sep 02 '19 at 14:37

mdivk

123

nooo. just no. if recursive was not already on the command... this can tank the whole system in some cases like a newbie trying to remove all hidden files with rm */.* (one example) – Eric Sebasta Mar 20 '20 at 05:34

score 0 · Answer 12 · answered Mar 23 '21 at 18:44

0

If there is a folder containing everything you want to delete, this can help cd directory find . -print |xargs rm -r

answered Mar 23 '21 at 18:44

Marco

1

This seems more complex than some of the other answers. Why should someone use this instead? – Charles Kenyon Mar 23 '21 at 21:44

score 0 · Answer 13 · answered Sep 28 '21 at 02:13

Another thing I noticed is that if I remove multiple files/dirs through in one go like the following then the rm command asks for confirmation.

sudo rm -rf dir1 dir2

If I remove them them one by one then it doesn't ask for confirmation.

sudo rm -rf dir1 
sudo rm -rf dir2

daw · Answer 14 · 2015-02-25T16:07:49.267

0

Currently I am working at a system, where the bash shell recieved the definition of the rm command as a function in one of the global configuration files:

 rm  () { /bin/rm -i ${1+"$@"}; }

Hence, none of the above answers regarding aliases did work. To counter the annoying behaviour I unset the rm function in my .bashrc file

 unset -f rm

I had a similar problem then the opener. However I did not found any answer that mentioned the possibility that rm is hidden by a shell function. So I added the answer here in the hope it would be of help for somebody facing the same type of problem.

Typing /bin/rm or rm -f all the time is inconvenient, and may have bad consequences (in the case of rm -f).

edited Feb 25 '15 at 16:07

answered Feb 25 '15 at 12:18

daw

101

That may have solved your problem but it does not answer the question. – suspectus Feb 25 '15 at 13:57
Wouldn't the selected answer - calling /bin/rm work? If I have a function in bash, and an executable file with the same name in the current directory, just adding ./ in front of the name will call the file - not the function. PS - I added a comment to the selected answer about a function & unset – Xen2050 Feb 25 '15 at 14:12
Yes, /bin/rm works. Doing the unset removes the need for typing the full path. – daw Feb 25 '15 at 16:03

Remove file without asking

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