Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!uwm.edu!carroll1!derek
From: derek@carroll1.cc.edu (Derek Inksetter)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Subject: Re: BBC micro
Message-ID: <1074@carroll1.cc.edu>
Date: 13 Jan 90 00:38:24 GMT
References: <wZfVc0200WB68G8m1a@andrew.cmu.edu>
Reply-To: derek@carroll1.cc.edu (Derek Inksetter)
Organization: Carroll College Dept. of Artificial Stupidity
Lines: 24

In article <wZfVc0200WB68G8m1a@andrew.cmu.edu> sa1z+@andrew.cmu.edu (Sudheer Apte) writes:
>                        ...I'd just like to make a little correction
>to the "rm *" discussion.  Somebody pointed out the common mistake of
>not SHIFT'ing in time when typing "rm *.o", getting "rm *>o", and
>claimed that you get just one empty file named "o".  Actually, the
>shell creates the file "o" before calling rm, so the command unlinks
>that, too;  you get nothing at all in your directory.  (Not that you'd
>be worrying about this minor fact when all your sources are gone,
>but...)
	
	I'm not trying to pick nits, but...

	No, you're wrong.  Well, you're right, but you're wrong.

	Yes, the shell creates the 'o' file before calling rm, but before
	doing that, it also expands the *, giving all the filenames in the
	directory (sans o) and passes them to rm.  

	I assume that this is the standard order for most *nix shells. (?)
	It's at least true for ksh running under our SysVr3

						Derek
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