V8/usr/man/man1/rm.1

.TH RM 1 
.SH NAME
rm, rmdir  \- remove (unlink) files
.SH SYNOPSIS
.B rm
[
.B \-f
] [
.B \-r
] [
.B \-i
] file ...
.SH DESCRIPTION
.I 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.
If an entry is a directory it is removed only if empty.
Removal of a file requires write permission in its directory,
but neither read nor write permission on the file itself.
.PP
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
.B \-f
(force) option is given.
Option
.B \-r
causes
.I rm
to recursively delete the
entire contents of a directory,
and the directory itself.
.PP
If the
.B \-i
(interactive) option is in effect,
.I rm
asks whether to delete each file,
and, under
.BR \-r ,
whether to examine each directory.
.SH "SEE ALSO"
unlink(2), rmdir(8)
.SH DIAGNOSTICS
Generally self-explanatory.
It is forbidden to remove the file 
.RB ` .. '
merely to avoid the
antisocial consequences of inadvertently doing something like
`rm \-r .*'.