.TH RM 1 .SH NAME rm, rmdir \- remove (unlink) files .SH SYNOPSIS .B rm [ .B \-f ] [ .B \-r ] [ .B \-i ] file ... .SH DESCRIPTION .I 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. If an entry is a directory it is removed only if empty. Removal of a file requires write permission in its directory, but neither read nor write permission on the file itself. .PP 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 and no errors are reported when the .B \-f (force) option is given. Option .B \-r causes .I rm to recursively delete the entire contents of a directory, and the directory itself. .PP If the .B \-i (interactive) option is in effect, .I rm asks whether to delete each file, and, under .BR \-r , whether to examine each directory. .SH "SEE ALSO" unlink(2), rmdir(8) .SH DIAGNOSTICS Generally self-explanatory. It is forbidden to remove the file .RB ` .. ' merely to avoid the antisocial consequences of inadvertently doing something like `rm \-r .*'.