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I recently wanted to use the rm command in Terminal on my Mac. To my surprise, it just reponds with:

-bash: rm: command not found

I can use mv, cp, cd, ls etc. However rm somehow doesn't work. I can't use /bin/rm either.

Any ideas what is wrong?

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Does the file /bin/rm acually exist? – Gabe Mar 21 '11 at 7:46
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You didn't happen to have run sudo rm rm from the /bin folder by any chance? ;) – user24279 Mar 21 '11 at 7:48
I dont know.. How do i check.. and how do i repair it :S – s0mmer Mar 21 '11 at 8:13
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your system could be compromised... – bubu Mar 21 '11 at 10:14
I had a similar problem, trying to delete a "file in use". Initially, it recognised the command, giving a warning and asking for password. However, the file wasn't deleted, but the rm command did not exist anymore. This file has strange behaviour, as it changes name when trying to delete with secure empty trash. – user79002 Apr 29 '11 at 16:44
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migrated from stackoverflow.com Mar 21 '11 at 9:54

1 Answer

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Can you give us the output of the following commands:

stat /bin/rm

and

echo $PATH

Does the problem persists when you open a new terminal?

Did you do anything particular before trying to use the rm command?

Update: The output of your first command confirms that your command rm is missing. Why, I have no idea. Maybe, by error, while being sudo-ed, you did something like /bin/rm /bin/rm.
To fix it, can you try to copy the executable file command from an other mac?

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stat: /bin/rm: stat: No such file or directory and – s0mmer Mar 21 '11 at 8:13
/opt/local/bin:/opt/local/sbin:/opt/local/bin:/opt/local/sbin:/usr/bin:/bin:/usr‌​/sbin:/sbin:/usr/local/bin:/usr/local/git/bin:/usr/texbin:/usr/X11/bin – s0mmer Mar 21 '11 at 8:14
And no i've tried to restart/ and repair with disc utility and so on.. Just doesnt work.. Maybe my bashcr file is messed up. But i dont know how to fix it :S – s0mmer Mar 21 '11 at 8:14
@s0mmer: Your "bashcr" is in no way related to missing system commands. Read the output of the 'stat' command again. – grawity Mar 21 '11 at 12:44
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If you're taking TimeMachine backups of your system, use that to travel back in time on the /bin directory and restore the rm command from the TM backup. – Ian C. Apr 29 '11 at 16:47

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