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Deleting files and directories

You now have an ugly rhyme developing with the use of the ls command. To delete a file, use the rm command. (``rm'' stands for ``remove'').

/home/larry/foo#rm bells sells
/home/larry/foo#ls -F
shells
/home/larry/foo#

We're left with nothing but shells, but we won't complain. Note that rm by default won't prompt you before deleting a file-so be careful.

A related command to rm is rmdir. This command deletes a directory, but only if the directory is empty. If the directory contains any files or subdirectories, rmdir will complain.


mdw@sunsite.unc.edu