How can I make rm stop asking me for permission?

Question

On my server rm always asks me for permission (even though I'm root) when I run it, on my desktop it does not. Like so:

$ rm mod_wsgi-3.3.tar.gz
rm: remove regular file `mod_wsgi-3.3.tar.gz'?

How do I make it stop prompting me?

Maybe it is an alias. List the aliases with alias and remove the alias with unalias rm. — HMM, May 04 '11 at 18:24
Just remember that if you break your system, you get to keep both pieces. You might want to switch to something like trash-cli to give yourself an undo button for deletion. — Ryan C. Thompson, May 04 '11 at 18:59

score 16 · Accepted Answer · edited Oct 31 '13 at 08:43

16

I would check if your rm is an alias. Typing alias at the command line you will see all defined aliases. I expect something like

alias rm='rm -i'

If so, the alias is probably defined in in ~/.bashrc, so you can remove the alias altogether or change it to suit your needs.

Alternatively, you can remove the alias for the current terminal session using unalias rm.

edited Oct 31 '13 at 08:43

LiveWireBT

28,763

answered May 04 '11 at 18:27

enzotib

93,831

3

I consider it wiser to leave this as is and always use rm (-i due to the alias) and when prompted either type yes or ctrl-c and than do a rm -f. Safety first: I borked a complete system using rm where it did not have -i cuz someone else removed it from aliases (otherwise I would have spotted my mistake :D ). – Rinzwind May 04 '11 at 18:57
@Rinzwind - You are probably right, but I'm not overly worried about borking my server system in this case. It's stateless and I have setup script to restore it. I did however once remove half the PHP libs from my system through a badly typed rm, but I find it less annoying to do a big cleanup once, than small things all the time. – Kit Sunde May 04 '11 at 19:14
3

Sorry to say that, but if you’re not yet experienced enough to find out that your rm is an alias, then you should probably leave safety measures in place. – MPi Oct 31 '13 at 07:50

score 12 · Answer 2 · answered May 04 '11 at 17:57

12

rm -f mod_wsgi-3.3.tar.gz

WARNING: use with caution.

From the man page:

-f, --force ignore nonexistent files, never prompt

answered May 04 '11 at 17:57

Rinzwind

299,756

dlmeetei · Answer 3 · 2016-01-16T20:19:12.450

2

The greatest what I found is

\rm file

this will run the original unalias version and keep the alias intact.

We can also use shell built-in command for instance

command rm file

but I surely enjoy the less verbosity in first one

edited Jan 16 '16 at 20:19

answered Jan 09 '16 at 07:18

dlmeetei

175

1

I use quotes to avoid aliases, e.g. 'rm' file but yours is shorter! – joeytwiddle Jan 09 '16 at 08:30

score 1 · Answer 4 · answered Oct 31 '13 at 08:01

1

Another way to get around the defined alias is to give the full path when you don't want to be prompted:

/bin/rm mod_wsgi-3.3.tar.gz

I like to leave an alias to rm -i in place for safety, for when I'm hacking around in the middle of the night and typing rm .... But when I'm alert enough to remember that I don't want to be prompted, I type /bin/rm ....

answered Oct 31 '13 at 08:01

SpinUp __ A Davis

470

2

You can also do command rm /dead/file. command executes it without searching functions or aliases. – kiri Oct 31 '13 at 08:46

How can I make rm stop asking me for permission?

4 Answers4