kali_fornication2d ago

this command saves lives

https://lemmy.world/post/44291275

Show threadJasonDJ
Don’t forget the dot files and directories. Use sudo in case of trouble…sudo rm -rf .*
Mar 15 at 3:01pmWeb
Show threadScafir2d ago
Oh god, I never considered that .* could theoretically match …. Thanks fish for not doing that, more than likely saved my unknowing ass a couple of times
Show threadblack_flag2d ago
Someone please find me an example of a real shell that does this cuz I don’t believe it.
Show threadJasonDJ2d ago
It happened to me once. It was probably an old version of bash or possibly even just sh.
Show threadDirectorAutumn2d ago
When your wiping recycle bin and then run that command…
Show threadz3rOR0ne2d ago
Oh god…why would you not just cd … and rm -r the directory name?
Show threadWhyJiffie2d ago
Because you don’t always want to delete the directory itself, to then recreate it and set the ownerships and permissions again
Show threadz3rOR0ne2d ago
Fair enough. Then why not cd …, rm ./dir_name/* ?
Show threadWhyJiffie2d ago
because that does not delete hidden files in the directory
Show threadz3rOR0ne2d ago
Fair enough. Why not tack on rm ./.* as well to that list? Lol. Sorry, I’m truly just curious and not trying to be a smart alec.
Show threadWhyJiffie2d ago
with that we arrive at the original problem: depending on your shell and its configuration, … could be part of the results of the glob expansion. so at that point why bother stepping one dir level up
Show threadz3rOR0ne2d ago
Ah I see. Very interesting! Thank you.