rm(1)
NAME
rm, rmdir − remove (unlink) files
SYNTAX
rm [ −f ] [ −r ] [ −i ] [ − ] file...
rmdir dir...
DESCRIPTION
The rm command removes the entries for one or more files from a directory. If an entry was the last link to the file, the file is removed from the file system. 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.
The − option indicates that all the following arguments are to be treated as file names. This allows the specification of file names that begin with a minus ( − ).
The rmdir command removes entries for the named directories, which must be empty.
DIAGNOSTICS
It is forbidden to remove the file “..” merely to avoid inadvertently doing something like “rm −r .*”.