not enough permissions to empty trash

[Paul Howarth]

Emmanuel Deng wrote:
> --- Rahul Sundaram <sundaram at redhat.com> wrote:
> 
>>Hi
>>
>>
>>>...
>>>
>>>[root at localhost .Trash]# rm * -rf
>>>bash: /bin/rm: Argument list too long
>>>[root at localhost .Trash]#
>>>
>>>ouch, heh.
>>>
>>> 
>>>
>>
> http://www.gnu.org/software/coreutils/faq/coreutils-faq.html#Argument-list-too-long
> 
>>regards
>>Rahul
>>
> 
> 
> Try switching to root, go to the .Trash folder and use
> 
> #: rm -rdf *
> 
> because remember that the "r" is for recursive action,
> the "d" for folder(s), and "f" tells shell to continue
> none-interactively. So, you'll probably need to use
> "d" so that the all files and folders will be deleted
> successfully. 
> 
> I believe this should work.

Why is that? The original problem was that the argument list of "rm" was 
too long, which was because the shell expanded the glob "*" to an overly 
long list of filenames. The command you suggest does exactly the same, 
and will not help. And the "d" option isn't necessary either - non-empty 
directories shouldn't be unlinked (it's likely to cause filesystem 
corruption if indeed it's supported at all), and that's what the "d" 
option does. "rm -rf" should be quite sufficient for recursive directory 
deletion.

Paul.