Path: utzoo!utgpu!water!watmath!clyde!rutgers!sri-unix!quintus!sun!pitstop!sundc!seismo!uunet!munnari!moncskermit!goanna!yabbie!cit5!root From: root@cit5.oz (Steve Balogh) Newsgroups: comp.unix.wizards Subject: Re: globbing in the shell (Was Re: more rm insanity) Summary: A simple solution? Message-ID: <210@cit5.oz> Date: 9 Dec 87 08:35:45 GMT References: <1257@boulder.Colorado.EDU> <6840002@hpcllmv.HP.COM> <9555@mimsy.UUCP> <890@russell.STANFORD.EDU> <9610@mimsy.UUCP> <8146@ism780c.UUCP> Reply-To: steve@cit5.oz (Steve Balogh) Organization: Chisholm Institute of Technology, Melb, Australia Lines: 40 I have overcome the problem of accidently deleting a whole directory of files (after accidently doing it to my home directory ONCE only) by doing the following.... 1. I have set up a bin directory under my home directory which contains commands and programs which I use on a regular basis. 2. I have changed my PATH to include $HOME/bin as the FIRST entry (or at least BEFORE /bin ). 3. I have included a set of programs which simulates a trashcan by making a directory called $HOME/.TRASH and creating the following scripts: rm will do a mv from current directory to $HOME/.TRASH rummage will do an ls of $HOME/.TRASH scavange will retrieve an accidently rm'ed file empty will REALLY remove all files from $HOME/.TRASH 4. I automatically perform an "empty" command when logging out. (it could be said that this is dangerous, but it is a risk that I am willing to take so as to not make the .TRASH directory too big) It could be done manually on a regular basis. This system has saved many files which would have been accidently deleted and sometimes also serves as a place to put temporary files. (although this is not really recommended) I believe that the mv command only changes file pointers and does not actually copy a file, so even large files can be removed quickly with this method. I am sure that there are better and more exotic ways of solving the "rm *" problem but I find that the above works well for me. Steve. - - - - - (It's my opinion and not my employers) Steve Balogh VK3YMY | steve@cit5.cit.oz (...oz.au) Chisholm Institute of Technology | steve%cit5.cit.oz@uunet.uu.net PO Box 197, Caulfield East | Melbourne, AUSTRALIA. 3145 | {hplabs,mcvax,uunet,ukc}!munnari\ +61 3 573 2266 (Ans Machine) | !cit5.cit.oz!steve