Remove file without asking

Question

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

Answer 1

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

/bin/rm -f file.log

To see your aliases you can run alias.

Answer 2

The force flag removes all prompts;

rm -f {file}

Answer 3

May the force be with you - rm -f

Answer 4

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)

Answer 5

\rm file

Backslash \ bypasses aliases.

Answer 6

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

Answer 7

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).

Answer 8

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

find -name file.log -delete

Answer 9

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.

Answer 10

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

Answer 11

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

-R: Recursive f: force, no prompt

Answer 12

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).