[liverpole@golux ~/perl]% chmod +x rmtest2 [liverpole@golux ~/perl]% ls -lt rmtest2 -rwxrwxr-x 1 liverpole liverpole 352 Oct 7 12:25 rmtest2* [liverpole@golux ~/perl]% rmtest2 Before remove -rwxrwxr-x 1 liverpole liverpole 352 Oct 7 12:25 rmtest2 Filesystem 1-blocks Used Available Use% Mounted on /dev/hda2 77584592896 29352763392 44290686976 40% / After remove ls: rmtest2: No such file or directory Filesystem 1-blocks Used Available Use% Mounted on /dev/hda2 77584592896 29352759296 44290691072 40% / Try ^Z to see for yourself (cmd: df --block-size=1 .) ... Suspended [liverpole@golux ~/perl]% ls -lt rmtest2 ls: rmtest2: No such file or directory [liverpole@golux ~/perl]% df --block-size=1 . Filesystem 1-blocks Used Available Use% Mounted on /dev/hda2 77584592896 29352759296 44290691072 40% / [liverpole@golux ~/perl]% fg rmtest2 Now exiting the program [liverpole@golux ~/perl]% df --block-size=1 . Filesystem 1-blocks Used Available Use% Mounted on /dev/hda2 77584592896 29352759296 44290691072 40% /