Research V3 development

[unix-history] / man / man1 / rm.1

.pa 1
.he 'RM (I)'1/20/73'RM (I)'
.ti 0
NAME            rm  -- remove (unlink) files
.sp
.ti 0
SYNOPSIS        rm\b\b__ [ -f\b\b__ ] [ -r\b\b__ ] name\d1\u ...
.sp
.ti 0
DESCRIPTION     rm\b\b__
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 there is no write permission to a
file designated to be removed,
rm\b\b__ will print the file name, its mode and then
read a line from the standard input.
If the line begins with 'y', the file is removed,
otherwise it is not.
The optional argument -f\b\b__ prevents the above interaction.

If a designated file is a directory,
an error comment is printed unless the optional
argument -r\b\b__ has been used.
In that case, rm\b\b__ recursively deletes the
entire contents of the specified directory.
To remove directories per se see rmdir(I).
.sp
.ti 0
FILES           /etc/glob to implement -r\b\b__ flag
.sp
.ti 0
SEE ALSO        rmdir(I)
.sp
.ti 0
DIAGNOSTICS     "name: non existent"
.br
"name: not removed" if cannot remove
.br
"name: try again" error from fork
.sp
.ti 0
BUGS            When
rm\b\b__ removes the contents of a directory under the
-r\b\b__ flag, full pathnames are not printed in diagnostics.