." DO NOT MODIFY THIS FILE!  It was generated by help2man 1.5.1.2.
.TH RM 1 "November 1998" "GNU fileutils 4.0" "FSF"
.SH NAME
rm \- remove files or directories
.SH SYNOPSIS
.B rm
[\fIOPTION\fR]...\fI FILE\fR...
.SH DESCRIPTION
.PP
This manual page
documents the GNU version of
.BR rm .
.B rm
removes each specified 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.
.SH OPTIONS
.PP
Remove (unlink) the FILE(s).
.TP
\fB\-d\fR, \fB\-\-directory\fR
unlink directory, even if non-empty (super-user only)
.TP
\fB\-f\fR, \fB\-\-force\fR
ignore nonexistent files, never prompt
.TP
\fB\-i\fR, \fB\-\-interactive\fR
prompt before any removal
.TP
\fB\-r\fR, \fB\-R\fR, \fB\-\-recursive\fR
remove the contents of directories recursively
.TP
\fB\-v\fR, \fB\-\-verbose\fR
explain what is being done
.TP
\fB\-\-help\fR
display this help and exit
.TP
\fB\-\-version\fR
output version information and exit
.SH "REPORTING BUGS"
Report bugs to <bug-fileutils@gnu.org>.
.SH "SEE ALSO"
The full documentation for
.B rm
is maintained as a Texinfo manual.  If the
.B info
and
.B rm
programs are properly installed at your site, the command
.IP
.B info rm
.PP
should give you access to the complete manual.