Path: utzoo!attcan!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!uunet!virtech!cpcahil
From: cpcahil@virtech.uucp (Conor P. Cahill)
Newsgroups: comp.unix.misc
Subject: Re: Protection from "rm *"
Message-ID: <1990Sep29.120223.27217@virtech.uucp>
Date: 29 Sep 90 12:02:23 GMT
References: <853@agcsun.UUCP> <1990Sep29.043909.2577@smsc.sony.com>
Reply-To: cpcahil@virtech.UUCP (Conor P. Cahill)
Distribution: usa
Organization: Virtual Technologies Inc., Sterling VA
Lines: 31

In article <1990Sep29.043909.2577@smsc.sony.com> dce@smsc.sony.com (David Elliott) writes:
>In article <853@agcsun.UUCP> jackm@agcsun.UUCP () writes:
>>I don't like aliasing rm to a shell that copies things to a ".deleted" 
>>directory, so don't tell me about those.
>
>Me neither.  I also don't like aliasing rm to "rm -i".

From your posts, it sound like you guys want to go back to the old V6 and
possibly PWB shell days where an rm with a "match" character (either * or ?) 
would result in a [glob confirm] msg.  For example:

	% ls
	Makefile
	test
	test.c
	test.o
	% rm * .o
	Makefile test test.c test.o .o
	[glob confirm]

And you would have to type a y to really remove the files.  This would
protect you from the problem.  

When we upgraded to a System III machine, our users had all kinds of problems
when this "feature" went away.


-- 
Conor P. Cahill            (703)430-9247        Virtual Technologies, Inc.,
uunet!virtech!cpcahil                           46030 Manekin Plaza, Suite 160
                                                Sterling, VA 22170