[bug #22646] RFE: -I option for rm: prompt once on directories

[anonymous]

URL:
  <http://savannah.gnu.org/bugs/?22646>

                 Summary: RFE: -I option for rm: prompt once on directories
                 Project: GNU Core Utilities
            Submitted by: None
            Submitted on: Monday 17/03/08 at 22:16 UTC
                Category: None
                Severity: 3 - Normal
              Item Group: None
                  Status: None
                 Privacy: Public
             Assigned to: None
             Open/Closed: Open
         Discussion Lock: Any

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Details:

When using "rm -ir *", it can get pretty tedious confirming once for every
file, within directories. However, I prefer not to skip the safety-belt
entirely by abandoning the -i.

I propose adding a new flag, -I, which behaves in the same way as -i, except
that directories are only confirmed once for the whole directory.

Current behaviour:

[~/temp]$ touch a b ; mkdir c ; touch c/{d,e,f,g,h}
[~/temp]$ rm -ir *
rm: remove regular empty file `a'? y
rm: remove regular empty file `b'? y
rm: descend into directory `c'? y
rm: remove regular empty file `c/d'? y
rm: remove regular empty file `c/e'? y
rm: remove regular empty file `c/f'? y
rm: remove regular empty file `c/g'? y
rm: remove regular empty file `c/h'? y
rm: remove directory `c'? y
[~/temp]$

Proposed behaviour:

[~/temp]$ touch a b ; mkdir c ; touch c/{d,e,f,g,h}
[~/temp]$ rm -Ir *
rm: remove regular empty file `a'? y
rm: remove regular empty file `b'? y
rm: remove directory `c' and all its contents? y
[~/temp]$

Personally, I'd then change my .bashrc from "alias rm='rm -i'" to "alias
rm='rm -I', though I do realise that this is controversial ;-)

Just an idea - hope you like it. Thanks for all your work on GNU - much
appreciated! - Richard








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