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From: rpd@apple.UUCP (Rick Daley)
Newsgroups: comp.unix.wizards
Subject: Re: suggest solutions for "rm *"
Message-ID: <6601@apple.UUCP>
Date: Mon, 2-Nov-87 02:00:25 EST
Article-I.D.: apple.6601
Posted: Mon Nov  2 02:00:25 1987
Date-Received: Thu, 5-Nov-87 23:13:31 EST
References: <5715@j.cc.purdue.edu> <11074@felix.UUCP> <1379@bsu-cs.UUCP>
Organization: Apple Computer, Inc., Cupertino, USA
Lines: 22
Keywords: disaster
Summary: Definitely don't alias rm!

In article <1379@bsu-cs.UUCP>, dhesi@bsu-cs.UUCP (Rahul Dhesi) writes:
> In article <11074@felix.UUCP> zemon@felix.UUCP (Art Zemon) writes:
> >% alias rm delete
> 
> I strongly advise that rm not be aliased to anything else.  Instead,
> create a new command such as del or delete.  This way you will not be
> rudely surprised if you ever move to a different machine and expect the
> aliased rm to work as before.

I couldn't agree more.  When I was at UNH a few years ago, I learned quite
a bit about maintaining a UNIX system.  All I had to do was watch what the
staff there did, and make sure never to do the same thing!  They came up
with the brilliant idea of setting up "friendly" accounts on the VAX they 
used to teach intro courses.  Among other things, they aliased rm to be less
severe.  When the poor students moved into higher level courses, they moved
to another VAX where accounts were not set up this way.  Many students got
burned because the safegaurds they were used to were no longer there.  In
general, it's a bad idea to use alias to change the semantics of an existing
command.  It only causes confusion when you use another machine or account
that does not have the same environment.
						Rick Daley
						rpd@apple.UUCP