RM(1) RM(1)
NAME
rm, rmdir - remove (unlink) files
SYNOPSIS
rm [ -fri ] file ...
rmdir dir ...
DESCRIPTION
Rm removes the entries for one or more files from a direc-
tory. If an entry was the last link to the file, the file
is destroyed. Removal of a file requires write permission
in its directory, but neither read nor write permission on
the file itself.
If a file has no write permission and the standard input is
a terminal, its permissions are printed and a line is read
from the standard input. If that line begins with `y' the
file is deleted, otherwise the file remains. No questions
are asked when the -f (force) option is given.
If a designated file is a directory, an error comment is
printed unless the optional argument -r has been used. In
that case, rm recursively deletes the entire contents of the
specified directory, and the directory itself.
If the -i (interactive) option is in effect, rm asks whether
to delete each file, and, under -r, whether to examine each
directory.
Rmdir removes entries for the named directories, which must
be empty.
SEE ALSO
unlink(2)
DIAGNOSTICS
Generally self-explanatory. It is forbidden to remove the
file `..' merely to avoid the antisocial consequences of
inadvertently doing something like `rm -r .*'.