Subject: Re: rm patch
To: Liam J. Foy <liamfoy@sepulcrum.org>
From: Bill Studenmund <wrstuden@netbsd.org>
List: tech-userlevel
Date: 08/23/2006 10:57:23
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On Wed, Aug 23, 2006 at 01:19:53AM +0100, Liam J. Foy wrote:
>=20
> On 22 Aug 2006, at 07:33, Bernd Ernesti wrote:
>=20
> The question is whether -f should cause the removal regardless of the
> overwrite result (I personally think yes).

Please don't. I've run into this on MacOS X and it is very irritating.

If I request -P, I don't want the file unlinked. There's something in its=
=20
data that I don't want to have linger on the disk afterwards. Letting -f=20
override this is unsafe; after the file is unlinked, there's no way I can=
=20
ensure the file contents get overritten.

Adding "-rf" to an rm command line is almost reflexive. It's not the "I=20
really really know what I'm doing" option that should override -P.

Take care,

Bill

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