32v 1m rm
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RM(1) UNIX Programmer's Manual RM(1)
Contents
NAME
rm, rmdir - remove (unlink) files
SYNOPSIS
rm [ -fri ] file ...
rmdir dir ...
DESCRIPTION
_R_m 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, _r_m recursively deletes the entire contents of the specified directory, and the directory itself.
If the -i (interactive) option is in effect, _r_m asks whether to delete each file, and, under -r, whether to examine each directory.
_R_m_d_i_r 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 .*'.