rm -rf always exiting with 0, even if dir does not exist

Question

I have this command:

rm -rf ~/.quicklock; echo $?
rm -rf ~/.quicklock; echo $?
rm -rf ~/.quicklock; echo $?
rm -rf ~/.quicklock; echo $?

always exits with 0, even if directory does not exist. I am on a Mac. I thought it would exit with 1 if the directory does not exist?

score 6 · Accepted Answer · answered Mar 02 '18 at 05:36

6

rm -f does not consider it to be an error if the file does not exist (nor if the directory does not exist, in the case of rm -rf).

man rm says about -f or --force:

ignore nonexistent files and arguments

answered Mar 02 '18 at 05:36

John Zwinck

1 Answers1