rm/rm.1

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  37 .\"     @(#)rm.1        8.5 (Berkeley) 12/5/94
  38 .\"
  39 .Dd December 5, 1994
  40 .Dt RM 1
  41 .Os
  42 .Sh NAME
  43 .Nm rm
  44 .Nd remove directory entries
  45 .Sh SYNOPSIS
  46 .Nm
  47 .Op Fl f | Fl i
  48 .Op Fl dPRrW
  49 .Ar file ...
  50 .Sh DESCRIPTION
  51 The
  52 .Nm
  53 utility attempts to remove the non-directory type files specified on the
  54 command line.
  55 If the permissions of the file do not permit writing, and the standard
  56 input device is a terminal, the user is prompted (on the standard error
  57 output) for confirmation.
  58 .Pp
  59 The options are as follows:
  60 .Bl -tag -width flag
  61 .It Fl d
  62 Attempt to remove directories as well as other types of files.
  63 .It Fl f
  64 Attempt to remove the files without prompting for confirmation,
  65 regardless of the file's permissions.
  66 If the file does not exist, do not display a diagnostic message or modify
  67 the exit status to reflect an error.
  68 The
  69 .Fl f
  70 option overrides any previous
  71 .Fl i
  72 options.
  73 .It Fl i
  74 Request confirmation before attempting to remove each file, regardless of
  75 the file's permissions, or whether or not the standard input device is a
  76 terminal.
  77 The
  78 .Fl i
  79 option overrides any previous
  80 .Fl f
  81 options.
  82 .It Fl P
  83 Overwrite regular files before deleting them.
  84 Files are overwritten three times, first with the byte pattern 0xff,
  85 then 0x00, and then 0xff again, before they are deleted.
  86 .It Fl R
  87 Attempt to remove the file hierarchy rooted in each file argument.
  88 The
  89 .Fl R
  90 option implies the
  91 .Fl d
  92 option.
  93 If the
  94 .Fl i
  95 option is specified, the user is prompted for confirmation before
  96 each directory's contents are processed (as well as before the attempt
  97 is made to remove the directory).
  98 If the user does not respond affirmatively, the file hierarchy rooted in
  99 that directory is skipped.
 100 .Pp
 101 .It Fl r
 102 Equivalent to
 103 .Fl R .
 104 .It Fl W
 105 Attempts to undelete the named files.
 106 Currently, this option can only be used to recover
 107 files covered by whiteouts.
 108 .El
 109 .Pp
 110 The
 111 .Nm
 112 utility removes symbolic links, not the files referenced by the links.
 113 .Pp
 114 It is an error to attempt to remove the files ``.'' and ``..''.
 115 .Pp
 116 The
 117 .Nm
 118 utility exits 0 if all of the named files or file hierarchies were removed,
 119 or if the
 120 .Fl f
 121 option was specified and all of the existing files or file hierarchies were
 122 removed.
 123 If an error occurs,
 124 .Nm
 125 exits with a value >0.
 126 .Sh SEE ALSO
 127 .Xr rmdir 1 ,
 128 .Xr undelete 2 ,
 129 .Xr unlink 2 ,
 130 .Xr fts 3 ,
 131 .Xr symlink 7
 132 .Sh BUGS
 133 The
 134 .Fl P
 135 option assumes that the underlying file system is a fixed-block file
 136 system.
 137 UFS is a fixed-block file system, LFS is not.
 138 In addition, only regular files are overwritten, other types of files
 139 are not.
 140 .Sh COMPATIBILITY
 141 The
 142 .Nm
 143 utility differs from historical implementations in that the
 144 .Fl f
 145 option only masks attempts to remove non-existent files instead of
 146 masking a large variety of errors.
 147 .Pp
 148 Also, historical
 149 .Bx
 150 implementations prompted on the standard output,
 151 not the standard error output.
 152 .Sh STANDARDS
 153 The
 154 .Nm
 155 utility is expected to be
 156 .St -p1003.2
 157 compatible.