rm command

[Nelson Garcia]

Isn't it capital "R"?

Anyway, excellent point about being careful.  Just learn from my mistake...

A while back I was testing a webmail application called "vamp" and decided
that I wanted to delete it. The directory and subdirectories had very long
names such as vamp-1.2.3-xxx, you get the idea.  So I got lazy and used wild
cards.

Let's just say that "rm -Rf /va*"   is NOT the same as "rm -Rf va*",  you
can guess what happened...

What I do now is type "rm -R <path>"  and let it prompt me a few times until
I am satisfied that is traversing the correct path, then I CTL-C and repeat
the command with the "f" parameter.  Too paranoid, I know.  You could also
type slower.

Nelson.


----- Original Message -----
From: "Robert Buecker" <rbuecker at darkscape.net>
To: "Linux & Unix Advocates & Users" <luau at maile.hi.net>
Sent: Wednesday, June 06, 2001 01:40 AM
Subject: [luau] Re: rm command


rm -rf /path/to/directory/you/want/deleted

make sure you aren't in the directory or any sub directory or else it won't
be removed

and of course, be careful :>
  ----- Original Message -----
  From: Julio
  To: Linux & Unix Advocates & Users
  Sent: Wednesday, June 06, 2001 1:36 AM
  Subject: [luau] rm command


  how can I remove all the files and subdirectories in a directory without
being prompted everytime and without getting the message directory not empty
under linux, I have tried all the options listed under rmdir--help but can't
do it.

  thanks in advance

  Julio
  If you can't beat your computer at chess, try kickboxing!
  ---