Path: utzoo!mnetor!uunet!seismo!esosun!cogen!celerity!jjw From: jjw@celerity.UUCP (Jim ) Newsgroups: comp.unix.wizards Subject: Re: globbing in the shell (Was Re: more rm insanity) Message-ID: <517@celerity.UUCP> Date: 8 Dec 87 19:44:47 GMT References: <1257@boulder.Colorado.EDU> <6840002@hpcllmv.HP.COM> <9555@mimsy.UUCP> <1890@celtics.UUCP> <6774@brl-smoke.ARPA> <12441@think.UUCP> <6356@ncoast.UUCP> et al. Reply-To: jjw@celerity.UUCP (Jim (JJ) Whelan) Organization: /usr/lib/news/organization Lines: 31 Keywords: One thing I have not seen in all this discussion about "wildcard characters" in rm is whether anything is accomplished if rm uses interactive mode anytime it is invoked with wildcards? I assume that "-f" can be used to avoid interactive mode when large numbers of files are to be deleted and in shell scripts. I don't think this automatic interactive mode would have saved me from many (if any) cases where I deleted a file inadvertantly: I have deleted as many files I shouldn't have by typing the full name without fully engaging my brain as I have by using wild cards. If the system started spitting file names at me when I was deleting files I would probably just start hitting the "y" key without really watching the files. If I was only trying to delete one file using wildcards I would be likely to type "rm x*x \n y" without looking at the screen, thereby possibly deleting a file I wanted and retaining the one I wanted to delete. I would soon tire of having to always respond to a list of file names so I would either get in the habit of always typing "rm -f" or alias rm to "rm -f". Are others that much different from me? I have also lost many more files to disk failures and system failures than I ever have because wild cards are expanded in the shell. Proper backup procedures are required, and if they are in place the loss from an inadvertant file deletion is manageable. Those who are really worried about file loss can always create their own file deletion script/alias to stash the files away for a few days before final deletion. -- J. J. Whelan