diff --git a/xCAT-test/unit/rmimage_image_files.t b/xCAT-test/unit/rmimage_image_files.t
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..b0fd3a35e
--- /dev/null
+++ b/xCAT-test/unit/rmimage_image_files.t
@@ -0,0 +1,65 @@
+#!/usr/bin/env perl
+use strict;
+use warnings;
+use FindBin;
+use lib "$FindBin::Bin/../lib";
+use lib "$FindBin::Bin/../../perl-xCAT";
+use lib "$FindBin::Bin/../../xCAT-server/lib/perl";
+use Cwd qw(realpath);
+use File::Path qw(make_path);
+use File::Slurper qw(write_text);
+use File::Temp qw(tempdir);
+use Sys::Hostname qw(hostname);
+use Test::More;
+use XCAT::Test::File qw(repo_path);
+
+plan skip_all => 'rmimage runs only on Linux' unless $^O eq 'linux';
+
+my $fixture = realpath(tempdir(CLEANUP => 1));
+make_path("$fixture/db", "$fixture/root/lib/perl", "$fixture/tftpboot");
+symlink(repo_path('perl-xCAT/xCAT'), "$fixture/root/lib/perl/xCAT") or die $!;
+$ENV{XCATROOT} = "$fixture/root";
+$ENV{XCATCFG}  = "SQLite:$fixture/db";
+require xCAT::Table;
+require(repo_path('xCAT-server/lib/xcat/plugins/rmimage.pm'));
+
+# The image lock lives in /var/lock/xcat, so the test records the request instead.
+our @LOCKED;
+{
+    no warnings qw(redefine once);
+    *xCAT::Utils::acquire_lock_imageop = sub { push @LOCKED, $_[1]; return (0, {}) };
+}
+
+xCAT::Table->new('site', -create => 1)->setAttribs({ key => $_->[0] }, { value => $_->[1] })
+  for ([ installdir => "$fixture/install" ], [ tftpdir => "$fixture/tftpboot" ]);
+(my $host = hostname()) =~ s/[^A-Za-z0-9.-]/_/g;
+my $dir = "$fixture/install/netboot/lite";
+make_path("$dir/rootimg/etc", "$dir/.packimage-$host+ABANDONE", "$dir/.packimage-other.host+WRITING1");
+write_text("$dir/.packimage-$host+ABANDONE/rootimg-statelite.gz", "partial archive\n");
+write_text("$dir/.packimage-other.host+WRITING1/rootimg.cpio.gz", "archive that another host writes\n");
+make_path("$dir/.rootimg-previous-KEPTARCH");
+write_text("$dir/.rootimg-previous-KEPTARCH/rootimg.cpio.gz", "previous archive that a failed publication kept\n");
+my @image_files = qw(kernel initrd-stateless.gz initrd-stateless.gz.rootimgcheck initrd-statelite.gz
+  rootimg.cpio.gz rootimg.cpio.gz.sha256 rootimg.cpio.gz.metainfo
+  rootimg-statelite.gz rootimg-statelite.gz.sha256 rootimg-statelite.gz.metainfo);
+write_text("$dir/$_", "$_\n") for (@image_files, 'notes.txt');
+xCAT::Table->new('osimage', -create => 1)->setAttribs({ imagename => 'lite' },
+    { osvers => 'rhels9.6', osarch => 'x86_64', profile => 'compute', provmethod => 'statelite' });
+xCAT::Table->new('linuximage', -create => 1)->setAttribs({ imagename => 'lite' }, { rootimgdir => $dir });
+
+my @responses;
+{
+    no warnings 'once';
+    local %::XCATSITEVALS = (installdir => "$fixture/install", tftpdir => "$fixture/tftpboot");
+    xCAT_plugin::rmimage::process_request({ arg => ['lite'] }, sub { push @responses, @_ }, sub { });
+}
+is(join("\n", map { @{ $_->{error} || [] } } @responses), '', 'rmimage reports no error');
+is_deeply(\@LOCKED, ["$dir/rootimg"], 'rmimage holds the image lock');
+is_deeply([ grep { -e "$dir/$_" } @image_files ], [], 'the archives, their checksums and metainfo, and the marker are removed');
+ok(!-e "$dir/rootimg", 'the image tree is removed');
+ok(!-e "$dir/.packimage-$host+ABANDONE", 'a temporary directory that this host abandoned is removed');
+ok(-e "$dir/.packimage-other.host+WRITING1/rootimg.cpio.gz", 'a temporary directory of another host stays');
+ok(!-e "$dir/.rootimg-previous-KEPTARCH", 'a previous archive that a failed publication kept is removed with the image');
+ok(-e "$dir/notes.txt", 'a file that is not part of the image stays');
+
+done_testing();