Batch Script – Remove

Bash is a command language interpreter. It is used in most of the UNIX/LINUX-based distros. Bash support scripting means we can automate the Bash commands by writing some scripts with different logic, looping, and decision making. This benefits us to automate some time-consuming and tedious jobs.

Here in this article, we are going to discuss the rm command within Bash Scripting. rm command helps to remove files, directories, and symbolic links.

The basic syntax for the rm command is –

Syntax of rm command:

rm [OPTION]... FILE...

Let’s understand using examples:

Example 1: rm command for deleting a file

Example Script:

#!/bin/bash
rm myfile.txt
echo "File is deleted"

Script Output:

File is deleted

Below is the terminal shell pictorial depiction after executing the following script:

Here in this example, we have deleted one text file with the name myfile.txt using the rm command.

There are a few options we can use with the rm command they are as follows:

Options	Description
-f, –force	It will ignore if the file does not exist in the directory.
-i	It will show a prompt message before every removal operation
-I	It will show a prompt message only one time before the removal operation of multiple files
–one-file-system	It will skip any directory that is on a file system different from that of the corresponding command-line argument
-r, -R, –recursive	It will remove directories and their contents recursively
-d, –dir	It will remove empty directories
-v, –verbose	It will explain what is being done

Please refer to the rm command in Linux with examples article for examples of the above options. 

Example 2: rm command from If Statements in a Script

Example Script:

#!/bin/bash
filename="myfile_1.txt"
if [ "$filename"=="myfile_1.txt" ];then
rm myfile_1.txt
echo "myfile_1.txt is deleted"
else
rm myfile_2.txt
echo "myfile_2.txt is deleted"
fi

Script Output:

myfile_1.txt is deleted

Below is the terminal shell pictorial depiction after executing the following script:

Here in this example, we have initially two text files, after that using the script we deleted one file (myfile_1.txt) as if the condition was satisfied and only that block got executed, so the rm command in else blocks is written for myfile_2.txt doesn’t get executed.

Example 3: rm command from Switch Statements in a Script

Example Script:

#!/bin/bash
preference="B"
case "$preference" in

    # case 1
    "A") rm file1.txt
    echo "file1.txt is deleted";;
    
    # case 2
    "B") rm -rf mydir
    echo "mydir is deleted";;
esac

Script Output:

mydir is deleted

Here in this example, we have deleted a non-empty directory using the rm command with the -rf option. We have used a switch statement for decision-making before performing the operation. If the preference was selected as A, then the rm command will delete a file with the file1.txt name.

Below is the terminal shell pictorial depiction after executing the following script: