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RM(1)			     General Commands Manual			   RM(1)

NAME
     rm, unlink -- remove directory entries

SYNOPSIS
     rm [-f | -i] [-dIPRrvW] file ...
     unlink 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 writing,
     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 	 Attempt to remove directories as well as other types of files.

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

     -i 	 Request confirmation before attempting to remove each file, re-
		 gardless 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.

     -I 	 Request  confirmation	once  if more than three files are being
		 removed or if a directory is being recursively  removed.   This
		 is  a far less intrusive option than -i yet provides almost the
		 same level of protection against mistakes.

     -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.  Specifying
		 this flag for a read only file will cause rm to generate an er-
		 ror message and exit.	The file will not be  removed  or  over-
		 written.

     -R 	 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 at-
		 tempt is made to remove the directory).  If the user  does  not
		 respond affirmatively, the file hierarchy rooted in that direc-
		 tory is skipped.

     -r 	 Equivalent to -R.

     -v 	 Be  verbose  when  deleting files, showing them as they are re-
		 moved.

     -W 	 Attempt to undelete the named files.	Currently,  this  option
		 can only be used to recover files covered by whiteouts.

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

     It is an error to attempt to remove the files /, . or ...

     When the utility is called as unlink, only one argument, which must not  be
     a	directory,  may  be supplied.  No options may be supplied in this simple
     mode of operation, which performs an unlink(2) operation on the passed  ar-
     gument.

     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.

NOTE
     The  rm  command  uses getopt(3) to parse its arguments, which allows it to
     accept the `--' option which will cause it to stop processing flag  options
     at that point.  This will allow the removal of file names that begin with a
     dash (`-').  For example:
	   rm -- -filename
     The  same	behavior  can  be obtained by using an absolute or relative path
     reference.  For example:
	   rm /home/user/-filename
	   rm ./-filename

COMPATIBILITY
     The rm utility differs from historical implementations in that the  -f  op-
     tion  only masks attempts to remove non-existent files instead of masking a
     large variety of errors.  The -v option is  non-standard  and  its  use  in
     scripts is not recommended.

     Also,  historical	BSD implementations prompted on the standard output, not
     the standard error output.

SEE ALSO
     chflags(1), rmdir(1), undelete(2), unlink(2), fts(3), getopt(3), symlink(7)

STANDARDS
     The rm command conforms to IEEE Std 1003.2 ("POSIX.2").

     The simplified unlink command conforms to Version	2  of  the  Single  UNIX
     Specification ("SUSv2").

HISTORY
     A 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.   UFS  is a fixed-block file system, LFS is not.  In addition, only
     regular files are overwritten, other types of files are not.

FreeBSD 5.5		       September 29, 2005			   RM(1)
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