sub rmtree {
    my($roots, $verbose, $safe) = @_;
    my(@files);
    my($count) = 0;
    $verbose ||= 0;
    $safe ||= 0;

    if ( defined($roots) && length($roots) ) {
      $roots = [$roots] unless ref $roots;
    }
    else {
      carp "No root path(s) specified\n";
      return 0;
    }

    my($root);
    foreach $root (@{$roots}) {
    	if ($Is_MacOS) {
	    $root = ":$root" if $root !~ /:/;
	    $root =~ s#([^:])\z#$1:#;
	} else {
	    $root =~ s#/\z##;
	}
	(undef, undef, my $rp) = lstat $root or next;
	$rp &= 07777;	# don't forget setuid, setgid, sticky bits
	if ( -d _ ) {
	    # notabene: 0777 is for making readable in the first place,
	    # it's also intended to change it to writable in case we have
	    # to recurse in which case we are better than rm -rf for 
	    # subtrees with strange permissions
	    chmod(0777, ($Is_VMS ? VMS::Filespec::fileify($root) : $root))
	      or carp "Can't make directory $root read+writeable: $!"
		unless $safe;

	    if (opendir my $d, $root) {
		@files = readdir $d;
		closedir $d;
	    }
	    else {
	        carp "Can't read $root: $!";
		@files = ();
	    }

	    # Deleting large numbers of files from VMS Files-11 filesystems
	    # is faster if done in reverse ASCIIbetical order 
	    @files = reverse @files if $Is_VMS;
	    ($root = VMS::Filespec::unixify($root)) =~ s#\.dir\z## if $Is_VMS;
	    if ($Is_MacOS) {
		@files = map("$root$_", @files);
	    } else {
		@files = map("$root/$_", grep $_!~/^\.{1,2}\z/s,@files);
	    }
	    $count += rmtree(\@files,$verbose,$safe);
	    if ($safe &&
		($Is_VMS ? !&VMS::Filespec::candelete($root) : !-w $root)) {
		print "skipped $root\n" if $verbose;
		next;
	    }
	    chmod 0777, $root
	      or carp "Can't make directory $root writeable: $!"
		if $force_writeable;
	    print "rmdir $root\n" if $verbose;
	    if (rmdir $root) {
		++$count;
	    }
	    else {
		carp "Can't remove directory $root: $!";
		chmod($rp, ($Is_VMS ? VMS::Filespec::fileify($root) : $root))
		    or carp("and can't restore permissions to "
		            . sprintf("0%o",$rp) . "\n");
	    }
	}
	else { 
	    if ($safe &&
		($Is_VMS ? !&VMS::Filespec::candelete($root)
		         : !(-l $root || -w $root)))
	    {
		print "skipped $root\n" if $verbose;
		next;
	    }
	    chmod 0666, $root
	      or carp "Can't make file $root writeable: $!"
		if $force_writeable;
	    print "unlink $root\n" if $verbose;
	    # delete all versions under VMS
	    for (;;) {
		unless (unlink $root) {
		    carp "Can't unlink file $root: $!";
		    if ($force_writeable) {
			chmod $rp, $root
			    or carp("and can't restore permissions to "
			            . sprintf("0%o",$rp) . "\n");
		    }
		    last;
		}
		++$count;
		last unless $Is_VMS && lstat $root;
	    }
	}
    }

    $count;
}