Subject: Re: Behaviour of "rm -P" when file cannot be overwritten
To: Alan Barrett <apb@cequrux.com>
From: Liam J. Foy <liamfoy@sepulcrum.org>
List: tech-userlevel
Date: 08/23/2006 16:18:40
On 23 Aug 2006, at 15:58, Alan Barrett wrote:

> On Wed, 23 Aug 2006, Liam J. Foy wrote:
>>> With your patch, if the file cannot be overwritten, there's some
>>> sort of "are you sure" prompt, but I find the wording of the message
>>> confusing.  It's not clear from the message that, if you answer  
>>> "yes",
>>> the file will be deleted without being overwritten.
>>
>> What prompt is this exactly? Can I see an example? The current
>> patch just displays a failure message and moves on leaving
>> the file intact.
>
> I was wrong.  I thought that it would print this pair of lines:
>
> rm: moo: -P was specified but file is not writable
> override r--r--r--  liamfoy/users for 'moo'?
>
> ... and then go on to delete the file without overwriting if you  
> answer
> "yes".
>
> I now see that it just prints the first of those two lines, and
> doesn't delete the file.
>
> --apb (Alan Barrett)

So you're happy with that then :-)? I have also changed the message
as you suggested and will make -f force later tonight. Right now
I'm busy with other tasks *cough* documentation *cough*. ;-)

		---
		Liam J. Foy
		<liamjfoy@netbsd.org>