Re: [PLUG] Interactive rm

[Art Alexion <art.alexion@verizon.net>]

Andrew Libby wrote:

>Michael C. Toren wrote:
>
>  
>
>>Art Alexion wrote:
>> 
>>
>>    
>>
>>>>How can I restore rm's default behavior so that "rm *" requires
>>>>confirmation, but "rm specified_file" does not?
>>>>     
>>>>
>>>>        
>>>>
>>gyoza@comcast.net wrote:
>> 
>>
>>    
>>
>>>Create an alias.
>>>   
>>>
>>>      
>>>
>>morgan wrote:
>> 
>>
>>    
>>
>>>If you're using bash you would create an alias:
>>>
>>>alias rm="rm -i"
>>>   
>>>
>>>      
>>>
>>Creating an alias won't solve Art's problem, which is using the "-i" flag
>>when rm is passed multiple files, but not using "-i" when only a single
>>file is specified -- rather, an alias will use "-i" in every case.  One
>>possible solution is to create a bash function which determines how many
>>arguments it was passed:
>>
>>	rm()
>>	{
>>	    if [ $# -lt 2 ]
>>	    then /bin/rm $*
>>	    else /bin/rm -i $*
>>	    fi
>>	}
>>
>>This works for the majority of cases:
>>
>>	[mct@ellesmere ~]$ touch foo bar baz
>>	[mct@ellesmere ~]$ rm foo
>>	[mct@ellesmere ~]$ rm bar baz
>>	/bin/rm: remove `bar'? y
>>	/bin/rm: remove `baz'? y
>> 
>>
>>    
>>
>
>This is a very cool solution!  A question I have is what art intended for
>the following cases:
>
>rm file1 file2
>rm file*
>rm file.???
>
>My bet is that the first case, he'd not want interactive rm, but in the
>second and third
>he would.   Am I correct in my supposition that wild cards are expanded
>prior to
>invocation of the shell function?  That would make this desire
>impossible, wouldn't it?
>Anyone have any idea how we might expand this solution to accommodate
>non-wild card
>multi parameter invocations or rm?
>  
>
Actually if I recall correctly, in RH 6.2 none of the examples you gave
were interactive; only rm *

I could live with all three examples being interactive, but could I
override it with 'rm -f *'?


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