It's actually required by POSIX to do nothing: If either of the files dot or dot-dot are specified as the basename portion of an operand (that is, the final pa

It's actually required by POSIX to do nothing: If either of the files dot or dot-dot are specified as the basename portion of an operand (that is, the final pathname component) or if an operand resolves to the root directory, rm shall write a diagnostic message to standard error and do nothing more with such operands. Source: http://pubs.opengroup.org/onlinepubs/9699919799/utilities/rm.html http://pubs.opengroup.org/onlinepubs/9699919799/utilities/rm...