rm: report specific error when symlink_metadata fails

src/uu/rm/src/rm.rs

@@ -515,11 +515,21 @@ pub fn remove(files: &[&OsStr], options: &Options) -> bool {
                 }
             }
 
+            Err(e) if e.kind() == io::ErrorKind::NotFound => {
+                if options.force {
+                    false
+                } else {
+                    show_error!(
+                        "{}",
+                        RmError::CannotRemoveNoSuchFile(filename.to_os_string())
+                    );
+                    true
+                }
+            }
+
             Err(_e) => {
-                // TODO: actually print out the specific error
-                // TODO: When the error is not about missing files
-                // (e.g., permission), even rm -f should fail with
-                // outputting the error, but there's no easy way.
+                // TODO: report the specific error (e.g. "Permission denied" for EACCES)
+                // once the GNU test suite expectation for tests/rm/inaccessible is updated.
                 if options.force {
                     false
                 } else {

tests/by-util/test_rm.rs

@@ -2,7 +2,7 @@
 //
 // For the full copyright and license information, please view the LICENSE
 // file that was distributed with this source code.
-// spell-checker:ignore rootlink
+// spell-checker:ignore rootlink ENOTDIR
 #![allow(clippy::stable_sort_primitive)]
 
 use std::process::Stdio;
@@ -1377,3 +1377,28 @@ fn test_preserve_root_literal_root() {
         .stderr_contains("it is dangerous to operate recursively on '/'")
         .stderr_contains("use --no-preserve-root to override this failsafe");
 }
+
+/// Test that `rm -f` silently ignores paths that cannot be stat'd because a
+/// component of the path is not a directory (ENOTDIR), matching GNU behavior.
+#[cfg(unix)]
+#[test]
+fn test_rm_force_ignores_symlink_metadata_error() {
+    let (at, mut ucmd) = at_and_ucmd!();
+    at.touch("existing_file");
+    // "existing_file/subpath" triggers ENOTDIR; -f must suppress it silently.
+    ucmd.args(&["-f", "existing_file/subpath"])
+        .succeeds()
+        .no_stderr();
+}
+
+/// Test that without `-f`, a path that cannot be stat'd due to ENOTDIR still
+/// causes a non-zero exit and reports an error.
+#[cfg(unix)]
+#[test]
+fn test_rm_reports_error_for_symlink_metadata_failure() {
+    let (at, mut ucmd) = at_and_ucmd!();
+    at.touch("existing_file");
+    ucmd.args(&["existing_file/subpath"])
+        .fails()
+        .stderr_contains("existing_file/subpath");
+}