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NAME

       rm - remove directory entries

SYNOPSIS

       rm [-fiRr] file...

DESCRIPTION

       The  rm utility shall remove the directory entry specified by each file
       argument.

       If either of the files dot or dot-dot are  specified  as  the  basename
       portion of an operand (that is, the final pathname component), rm shall
       write a diagnostic message to standard error and do nothing  more  with
       such operands.

       For each file the following steps shall be taken:

        1. If the file does not exist:

            a. If  the -f option is not specified, rm shall write a diagnostic
               message to standard error.

            b. Go on to any remaining files.

        2. If file is of type directory, the following steps shall be taken:

            a. If neither the -R option nor the -r  option  is  specified,  rm
               shall  write a diagnostic message to standard error, do nothing
               more with file, and go on to any remaining files.

            b. If the -f option is not specified, and either  the  permissions
               of  file  do  not  permit  writing  and the standard input is a
               terminal or the -i option is specified, rm shall write a prompt
               to  standard  error and read a line from the standard input. If
               the response is not affirmative, rm shall do nothing more  with
               the current file and go on to any remaining files.

            c. For  each  entry  contained in file, other than dot or dot-dot,
               the four steps listed here (1 to 4) shall  be  taken  with  the
               entry  as  if  it were a file operand. The rm utility shall not
               traverse directories by following  symbolic  links  into  other
               parts  of the hierarchy, but shall remove the links themselves.

            d. If the -i option is specified,  rm  shall  write  a  prompt  to
               standard error and read a line from the standard input.  If the
               response is not affirmative, rm shall do nothing more with  the
               current file, and go on to any remaining files.

        3. If  file  is not of type directory, the -f option is not specified,
           and either the permissions of file do not permit  writing  and  the
           standard  input  is  a  terminal  or the -i option is specified, rm
           shall write a prompt to the standard error and read a line from the
           standard  input.  If  the  response is not affirmative, rm shall do
           nothing more with the current file  and  go  on  to  any  remaining
           files.

        4. If  the  current  file  is  a  directory,  rm shall perform actions
           equivalent to the rmdir() function defined in the System Interfaces
           volume  of  IEEE Std 1003.1-2001  called  with  a  pathname  of the
           current file used as the path argument. If the current file is  not
           a  directory,  rm  shall perform actions equivalent to the unlink()
           function   defined   in   the   System   Interfaces    volume    of
           IEEE Std 1003.1-2001  called  with  a  pathname of the current file
           used as the path argument.

       If this fails for any reason, rm shall write a  diagnostic  message  to
       standard error, do nothing more with the current file, and go on to any
       remaining files.

       The rm utility shall be able to descend to arbitrary depths in  a  file
       hierarchy, and shall not fail due to path length limitations (unless an
       operand specified by the user exceeds system limitations).

OPTIONS

       The rm  utility  shall  conform  to  the  Base  Definitions  volume  of
       IEEE Std 1003.1-2001, Section 12.2, Utility Syntax Guidelines.

       The following options shall be supported:

       -f     Do not prompt for confirmation. Do not write diagnostic messages
              or modify the exit status in the case of  nonexistent  operands.
              Any previous occurrences of the -i option shall be ignored.

       -i     Prompt  for  confirmation  as described previously. Any previous
              occurrences of the -f option shall be ignored.

       -R     Remove file hierarchies. See the DESCRIPTION.

       -r     Equivalent to -R.

OPERANDS

       The following operand shall be supported:

       file   A pathname of a directory entry to be removed.

STDIN

       The standard input shall be used to read an input line in  response  to
       each  prompt  specified  in the STDOUT section. Otherwise, the standard
       input shall not be used.

INPUT FILES

       None.

ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES

       The following environment variables shall affect the execution of rm:

       LANG   Provide a default value for the  internationalization  variables
              that  are  unset  or  null.  (See the Base Definitions volume of
              IEEE Std 1003.1-2001,    Section    8.2,    Internationalization
              Variables  for  the precedence of internationalization variables
              used to determine the values of locale categories.)

       LC_ALL If set to a non-empty string value, override the values  of  all
              the other internationalization variables.

       LC_COLLATE

              Determine  the  locale  for  the behavior of ranges, equivalence
              classes, and multi-character  collating  elements  used  in  the
              extended  regular  expression  defined  for  the  yesexpr locale
              keyword in the LC_MESSAGES category.

       LC_CTYPE
              Determine the locale for  the  interpretation  of  sequences  of
              bytes  of  text  data as characters (for example, single-byte as
              opposed to multi-byte characters in arguments) and the  behavior
              of  character  classes  within  regular  expressions used in the
              extended regular  expression  defined  for  the  yesexpr  locale
              keyword in the LC_MESSAGES category.

       LC_MESSAGES
              Determine the locale for the processing of affirmative responses
              that should be  used  to  affect  the  format  and  contents  of
              diagnostic messages written to standard error.

       NLSPATH
              Determine the location of message catalogs for the processing of
              LC_MESSAGES .

ASYNCHRONOUS EVENTS

       Default.

STDOUT

       Not used.

STDERR

       Prompts shall  be  written  to  standard  error  under  the  conditions
       specified  in  the  DESCRIPTION and OPTIONS sections. The prompts shall
       contain the file pathname, but their format is  otherwise  unspecified.
       The standard error also shall be used for diagnostic messages.

OUTPUT FILES

       None.

EXTENDED DESCRIPTION

       None.

EXIT STATUS

       The following exit values shall be returned:

        0     All  of  the  named  directory  entries  for  which rm performed
              actions equivalent to the rmdir()  or  unlink()  functions  were
              removed.

       >0     An error occurred.

CONSEQUENCES OF ERRORS

       Default.

       The following sections are informative.

APPLICATION USAGE

       The  rm  utility  is  forbidden  to remove the names dot and dot-dot in
       order to avoid the consequences of inadvertently doing something like:

              rm -r .*

       Some implementations do not permit the removal of the last link  to  an
       executable binary file that is being executed; see the [EBUSY] error in
       the unlink() function  defined  in  the  System  Interfaces  volume  of
       IEEE Std 1003.1-2001.  Thus,  the  rm  utility  can fail to remove such
       files.

       The -i option causes rm to prompt and read the standard input  even  if
       the standard input is not a terminal, but in the absence of -i the mode
       prompting is not done when the standard input is not a terminal.

EXAMPLES

        1. The following command:

           rm a.out core

       removes the directory entries: a.out and core.

        2. The following command:

           rm -Rf junk

       removes the directory junk and all its contents, without prompting.

RATIONALE

       For absolute clarity, paragraphs (2b) and (3) in the DESCRIPTION of  rm
       describing  the  behavior  when  prompting  for confirmation, should be
       interpreted in the following manner:

              if ((NOT f_option) AND
                  ((not_writable AND input_is_terminal) OR i_option))

       The exact format of the interactive prompts is  unspecified.  Only  the
       general  nature  of  the  contents  of  prompts  are  specified because
       implementations may desire more descriptive prompts than those used  on
       historical  implementations. Therefore, an application not using the -f
       option, or using the -i option, relies on the  system  to  provide  the
       most  suitable  dialog  directly  with  the user, based on the behavior
       specified.

       The -r option is historical practice on all known systems. The  synonym
       -R  option is provided for consistency with the other utilities in this
       volume  of  IEEE Std 1003.1-2001  that   provide   options   requesting
       recursive descent through the file hierarchy.

       The  behavior  of  the  -f  option  in  historical  versions  of  rm is
       inconsistent. In general,  along  with  "forcing"  the  unlink  without
       prompting  for  permission,  it always causes diagnostic messages to be
       suppressed and  the  exit  status  to  be  unmodified  for  nonexistent
       operands  and files that cannot be unlinked. In some versions, however,
       the -f option suppresses usage messages  and  system  errors  as  well.
       Suppressing  such  messages is not a service to either shell scripts or
       users.

       It is less clear that error messages regarding  files  that  cannot  be
       unlinked  (removed)  should  be suppressed. Although this is historical
       practice, this volume of IEEE Std 1003.1-2001 does not  permit  the  -f
       option to suppress such messages.

       When  given the -r and -i options, historical versions of rm prompt the
       user twice for each directory, once before removing  its  contents  and
       once  before  actually  attempting  to  delete the directory entry that
       names it. This allows the user to  "prune"  the  file  hierarchy  walk.
       Historical versions of rm were inconsistent in that some did not do the
       former prompt for directories named on the command line and others  had
       obscure  prompting  behavior  when  the -i option was specified and the
       permissions of the file did not permit writing.  The  POSIX  Shell  and
       Utilities  rm  differs  little from historic practice, but does require
       that prompts  be  consistent.  Historical  versions  of  rm  were  also
       inconsistent  in  that  prompts  were  done to both standard output and
       standard error.  This  volume  of  IEEE Std 1003.1-2001  requires  that
       prompts  be done to standard error, for consistency with cp and mv, and
       to allow historical extensions to rm that provide  an  option  to  list
       deleted files on standard output.

       The  rm  utility is required to descend to arbitrary depths so that any
       file hierarchy may be deleted. This means, for  example,  that  the  rm
       utility cannot run out of file descriptors during its descent (that is,
       if the number of file descriptors is limited, rm cannot be  implemented
       in  the  historical  fashion  where  one  file  descriptor  is used per
       directory level). Also, rm is not permitted to  fail  because  of  path
       length  restrictions, unless an operand specified by the user is longer
       than {PATH_MAX}.

       The rm utility removes symbolic links themselves, not  the  files  they
       refer   to,  as  a  consequence  of  the  dependence  on  the  unlink()
       functionality, per the DESCRIPTION. When removing hierarchies  with  -r
       or  -R,  the  prohibition  on  following  symbolic links has to be made
       explicit.

FUTURE DIRECTIONS

       None.

SEE ALSO

       rmdir()  ,  the  System  Interfaces  volume  of   IEEE Std 1003.1-2001,
       remove(), rmdir(), unlink()

COPYRIGHT

       Portions  of  this text are reprinted and reproduced in electronic form
       from IEEE Std 1003.1, 2003 Edition, Standard for Information Technology
       --  Portable  Operating  System  Interface (POSIX), The Open Group Base
       Specifications Issue 6, Copyright (C) 2001-2003  by  the  Institute  of
       Electrical  and  Electronics  Engineers, Inc and The Open Group. In the
       event of any discrepancy between this version and the original IEEE and
       The  Open Group Standard, the original IEEE and The Open Group Standard
       is the referee document. The original Standard can be  obtained  online
       at http://www.opengroup.org/unix/online.html .