RM (I) 1/20/73 RM (I)





RM (I)                       1/20/73                       RM (I)





NAME            rm  -- remove (unlink) files



SYNOPSIS        rm [ -f ] [ -r ] name  ...
                                     1


DESCRIPTION     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.  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 desig-

                nated to be removed, rm 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 argu-

                ment -f prevents the above interaction.



                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 di-

                rectory.  To remove directories per se see

                rmdir(I).



FILES           /etc/glob to implement -r flag



SEE ALSO        rmdir(I)



DIAGNOSTICS     "name: non existent"

                "name: not removed" if cannot remove

                "name: try again" error from fork



BUGS            When rm removes the contents of a directory under

                the -r flag, full pathnames are not printed in

                diagnostics.
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