.TH RM 1L \" -*- nroff -*-
.SH NAME
rm \- remove files
.SH SYNOPSIS
.B rm
[\-dfirvR] [\-\-directory] [\-\-force] [\-\-interactive] [\-\-recursive]
[\-\-verbose] path...
.SH DESCRIPTION
This manual page
documents the GNU version of
.BR rm .
.B rm
removes each given file.  By default, it does not remove
directories.
.P
If a file is unwritable, the standard input is a tty, and
the \fI\-f\fR or \fI\-\-force\fR option is not given,
.B rm
prompts the user for whether to remove the file.  If the response
does not begin with `y' or `Y', the file is skipped.
.LP
GNU
.BR rm ,
like every program that uses the getopt function to parse its
arguments, lets you use the
.I \-\-
option to indicate that all following arguments are non-options.  To
remove a file called `\-f' in the current directory, you could type
either
.RS
rm \-\- \-f
.RE
or
.RS
rm ./\-f
.RE
The Unix
.B rm
program's use of a single `\-' for this purpose predates the
development of the getopt standard syntax.
.SS OPTIONS
.TP
.I "\-d, \-\-directory"
Remove directories with `unlink' instead of `rmdir', and don't require
a directory to be empty before trying to unlink it.  Only works for
the super-user.  Because unlinking a directory causes any files in the
deleted directory to become unreferenced, it is wise to
.B fsck
the filesystem after doing this.
.TP
.I "\-f, \-\-force"
Ignore nonexistent files and never prompt the user.
.TP
.I "\-i, \-\-interactive"
Prompt whether to remove each file.  If the response does not begin
with `y' or `Y', the file is skipped.
.TP
.I "\-r, \-R, \-\-recursive"
Remove the contents of directories recursively.
.TP
.I "\-v, \-\-verbose"
Print the name of each file before removing it.
.PP
The long-named options can be introduced with `+' as well as `\-\-',
for compatibility with previous releases.  Eventually support for `+'
will be removed, because it is incompatible with the POSIX.2 standard.