bsd man page for rm

RM(1)							      General Commands Manual							     RM(1)

NAME
       rm, rmdir  - remove (unlink) files or directories

SYNOPSIS
       rm [ -f ] [ -r ] [ -i ] [ - ] 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 and no errors are reported
       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  recur-
       sively deletes the entire contents of the specified directory, and the directory itself.

       If the -i (interactive) option is in effect, rm asks whether to delete each file, and, under -r, whether to examine each directory.

       The  null  option  -  indicates that all the arguments following it are to be treated as file names.  This allows the specification of file
       names starting with a minus.

       Rmdir removes entries for the named directories, which must be empty.

SEE ALSO
       rm(1), unlink(2), rmdir(2)

4th Berkeley Distribution					  April 29, 1985							     RM(1)