RM(1)							    BSD General Commands Manual 						     RM(1)

NAME

     rm -- remove directory entries

SYNOPSIS

     rm [-f | -i] [-dPRrvW] 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 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    Request confirmation before attempting to remove each file, regardless of the file's permissions, or whether or not the standard input
	   device is a terminal.  The -i option overrides any previous -f options.

     -P    Overwrite regular files before deleting them.  Files are overwritten three times, first with the byte pattern 0xff, then 0x00, and then
	   with random data, before they are deleted.  Some care is taken to ensure that the data are actually written to disk, but this cannot be
	   guaranteed, even on traditional filesystems; on log-structured filesystems or if any block-journaling scheme is in use, this option is
	   completely useless.	If the file cannot be overwritten, it will not be removed.

     -R    Attempt to remove the file hierarchy rooted in each file argument.  The -R option implies the -d option.  If the -i option is speci-
	   fied, 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.

     -v    Cause rm to be verbose, showing files as they are processed.

     -W    Attempts 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 ``.'' and ``..''.

EXIT STATUS

     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

     rm uses getopt(3) standard argument processing.  Removing filenames that begin with a dash (e.g., -file) in the current directory which might
     otherwise be taken as option flags to rm can be accomplished as follows:

     rm -- -file

     or

     rm ./-file

SEE ALSO

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

BUGS

     The -P option assumes that the underlying file system is a fixed-block file system.  FFS is a fixed-block file system, LFS is not.  In addi-
     tion, only regular files are overwritten, other types of files are not.  Recent research indicates that as many as 35 overwrite passes with
     carefully chosen data patterns may be necessary to actually prevent recovery of data from a magnetic disk.  Thus the -P option is likely both
     insufficient for its design purpose and far too costly for default operation.  However, it will at least prevent the recovery of data from
     FFS volumes with fsdb(8).

COMPATIBILITY

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

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

STANDARDS

     The rm utility is expected to be IEEE Std 1003.2 (``POSIX.2'') compatible.  The -v option is an extension.

     The -P option attempts to conform to U.S. DoD 5220-22.M, "National Industrial Security Program Operating Manual" ("NISPOM") as updated by
     Change 2 and the July 23, 2003 "Clearing & Sanitization Matrix".  However, unlike earlier revisions of NISPOM, the 2003 matrix imposes
     requirements which make it clear that the standard does not and can not apply to the erasure of individual files, in particular requirements
     relating to spare sector management for an entire magnetic disk.  Because these requirements are not met, the -P option does not conform to
     the standard.

BSD
								  August 25, 2006							       BSD