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 directory. 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 .*'.