term% cat index.txt RM(1) General Commands Manual RM(1)
NAME
rm, rmdir - remove (unlink) files
SYNOPSIS
rm [ -fri ] file ...
rmdir dir ...
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 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 direc‐
tory itself.
If the -i (interactive) option is in effect, rm asks whether to delete
each file, and, under -r, whether to examine each directory.
Rmdir removes entries for the named directories, which must be empty.
SEE ALSO
unlink(2)
DIAGNOSTICS
Generally self-explanatory. It is forbidden to remove the file `..'
merely to avoid the antisocial consequences of inadvertently doing
something like `rm -r .*'.
RM(1)