Re: [SLUG] rmdir on directories with directories within withdirectories with

["Garth Sperring" <garth@xxxxxxxxxx>]

> On Thu, 23 Aug 2001, Tony Green wrote:
>
> > > > does not hack it. What do I do?
> > >
> > > rm -rf *
> >
> > As the old UNIX saying goes....
> >
> > 'Never use a star with rm -r'
>
'tis too true

I have learnt the hard way :-)

Spent two days setting up a HP-800 server with Oracle, dual SCSI II
controllers, mirrored hot-swappable drives, dual CPUs - top of line in its
day. Finished up the install and setup and decided to clean up some the
temporary install dirs....

# rm -r *

the pico-second after my finger lifted from the enter key - I realised what
I may have just done

Meanwhile from another shell...

# pwd
/
# ls
ksh: ls: command not found
# pwd
ksh: pwd: command not found
#

This superfast machine designed to support up to 100 concurrent Oracle
sessions, which was now burning 100% CPU on the rm process, spun into
action. The show was all over under 20 secs .... time to get the install
media back out the cupboard...



> True, but possibly a little outdated. Wildcard is done by the shell, and a
> modern shell (like zsh. bash yet?) will let you see the expansion on the
> command-line before hitting return, by hitting <tab> after the wildcard
> expression.
>
> > Instead, use rm -r directoryname (eg rm -r /home/transfers).  You may
have
>
> which you are effectively doing after expanding the "*'.
>
>
> --
> Mike Holland  <mike@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
>                           --==--
> There goes the good time that was had by all.
>                 -- Bette Davis, remarking on a passing starlet
>
>
> --
> SLUG - Sydney Linux User Group Mailing List - http://slug.org.au/
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