RM(1)                   System General Commands Manual                   RM(1)

NAME
     rm - remove directory entries

SYNOPSIS
     rm [-dfiPRr] file [...]

DESCRIPTION
     The rm utility attempts to remove the non-directory type files specified
     on the command line.  If the permissions of the file do not permit writ-
     ing, and the standard input device is a terminal, the user is prompted
     (on the standard error output) for confirmation.

     The options are as follows:

     -d, --directory
             Attempt to remove directories as well as other types of files.
             Note that this is now the default to match POSIX and SUS behav-
             ior.

     -f, --force
             Attempt to remove the files without prompting for confirmation,
             regardless of the file's permissions.  If the file does not
             exist, do not display a diagnostic message or modify the exit
             status to reflect an error.  The -f option overrides any previous
             -i options.

     -i, --interactive
             Request confirmation before attempting to remove each file,
             regardless of the file's permissions, or whether or not the stan-
             dard input device is a terminal.  The -i option overrides any
             previous -f options.

     -P      Overwrite regular files before deleting them.  Files are over-
             written three times, first with the byte pattern 0xff, then 0x00,
             and then 0xff again, before they are deleted.  Files with multi-
             ple links will not be overwritten.

     -R, --recursive
             Attempt to remove the file hierarchy rooted in each file argu-
             ment.  The -R option implies the -d option.  If the -i option is
             specified, the user is prompted for confirmation before each
             directory's contents are processed (as well as before the attempt
             is made to remove the directory).  If the user does not respond
             affirmatively, the file hierarchy rooted in that directory is
             skipped.

     -r      Equivalent to -R.

     The rm utility removes symbolic links, not the files referenced by the
     links.

     It is an error to attempt to remove the files ``.'' or ``..''.  It is
     forbidden to remove the file ``..'' merely to avoid the antisocial conse-
     quences of inadvertently doing something like ``rm -r .*''.

     When -f and -i are both specified the last occurring option is used. The
     -f and -i options may be specified multiple times and not generate a
     usage error.

     The rm utility exits 0 if all of the named files or file hierarchies were
     removed, or if the -f option was specified and all of the existing files
     or file hierarchies were removed.  If an error occurs, rm exits with a
     value >0.

EXAMPLES
     Recursively remove all files contained within the foobar directory hier-
     archy:

           $ rm -rf foobar

     Either of these commands will remove the file -f:

           $ rm -- -f
           $ rm ./-f

SEE ALSO
     rmdir(1), unlink(2), fts(3)

STANDARDS
     The rm utility differs from historical implementations in that the -f
     option only masks attempts to remove non-existent files instead of mask-
     ing a large variety of errors.

     Also, historical BSD implementations prompted on the standard output, not
     the standard error output (which is now POSIX and SUS).

     The interactive mode used to be a dsw command, a carryover from the
     ancient past with an amusing etymology.

     The rm utility is POSIX 1003.2 and SUS version 2 compatible, inlcuding
     that POSIX and SUS require rm to act like rmdir(1) when the file speci-
     fied is a directory.

HISTORY
     An rm command appeared in Version 1 AT&T UNIX.

BUGS
     The -P option assumes that the underlying file system is a fixed-block
     file system.  In addition, only regular files are overwritten, other
     types of files are not.

Interix                          June 11, 2006                         Interix