Path: utzoo!mnetor!uunet!lll-winken!lll-lcc!ames!pacbell!att-ih!ihnp4!ihlpf!nevin1 From: nevin1@ihlpf.ATT.COM (00704a-Liber) Newsgroups: comp.os.vms Subject: Re: Unix/VMS "wars" & Machine MIPS "ratings" Message-ID: <4085@ihlpf.ATT.COM> Date: 22 Mar 88 23:48:35 GMT References: <36568QAA@PSUVM> <2413@bsu-cs.UUCP> Reply-To: nevin1@ihlpf.UUCP (00704a-Liber,N.J.) Organization: AT&T Bell Laboratories - Naperville, Illinois Lines: 61 In article <2413@bsu-cs.UUCP> dhesi@bsu-cs.UUCP (Rahul Dhesi) writes: >In article <36568QAA@PSUVM> QAA@PSUVM.BITNET writes: >>To all UNIX lovers - give me ONE good reason why "rm" is better than "delete" >>to delete a file. > >The VMS "delete" command has some serious flaws. It can't recursively >delete a directory subtree. Are you sure about this?? It's been a long time for me (slightly over a year since I last did any serious VMS work), but I thought that $ DEL [...]*.*;* (or something close to that) would do it. Now, if you rename one of the subdirectories so that it doesn't have the .DIR extension, that's a different story ... >It will also blindly delete a file even if >it has multiple directory entries for it, thus invalidating them with >no warning to the user. (This is really a VMS file system problem.) There is also the converse: UNLINKing a file with only one link instead of DELeting it left the space allocated but no way to reallocate it short of reloading the system. In general: LINK in VMS is a very poor kludge of the equivalent in UNIX. >Also, "delete" simply aborts with an error if the file that the user >wanted to delete is write-protected, instead of allowing the user to >override the protection as the UNIX "rm" command does. I think that this is because any user (not necessarily the owner) can delete a file if he has the correct privileges or he is on the access list or the permissions on the file allow him to delete it. You can get burned by this feature of 'rm', though. If you are doing a 'rm -i *' and you are not really paying attention, you'll probably rm a few files you really didn't want to get rid of. Of course, I'm also the guy who, just after finishing up a class assignment written in Modula-2 (under VMS), did a $ DEL/CONFIRM *.MOD;* instead of $ DEL/CONFIRM *.OBJ;* without paying attention, and managed to DELETE all my source!! So much for confirmation messages!! (I guess I can put a smiley here--I still managed to get an 'A' in the course :-)) >While VMS does have some interesting and useful features, its "delete" >command is surely not one of its strong points. If we have to debate on the DELETE vs rm issue, it's time that this discussion ended!! :-) :-) -- _ __ NEVIN J. LIBER ..!ihnp4!ihlpf!nevin1 (312) 510-6194 ' ) ) "The secret compartment of my ring I fill / / _ , __o ____ with an Underdog super-energy pill." / (_