OT: the rm bug hit me again

[Robin Laing]

Nigel Wade wrote:
> Mike McCarty wrote:
> 
>> Arthur Pemberton wrote:
>>
>>> On 10/25/06, Robin Laing <Robin.Laing at drdc-rddc.gc.ca> wrote:
>>>
>>>> Graphical file manager?  That isn't the *nix way of doing things.  :)
>>>>
>>>> And the -f in the rm command it to stop the "Confirm delete?" 
>>>> questions.
>>>>    My rm is set to confirm all deletes using alias.
>>>>
>>>> -- 
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> How exactly did you do this? I got bit by this bug once in my Linux
>>> life, would prefer it never happens again.
>>>
>>
>> alias rm='rm -i'
>>
> 
> That's not a good idea as it teaches you to expect to be prompted, and 
> you'll be bitten badly some time when the alias isn't present.
> 
> Better to alias it to some command which doesn't exist, like del, and 
> train yourself to use del. If the alias isn't present all you get is 
> 'del: command not found' rather than a depleted filesystem.
> 

I actually don't expect it but I have it as a backup in case I am tired 
or not thinking.  My fear would be that after all these years if I 
changed it, I would then make the error.  I normally don't rm something 
unless I really want to.  But it is a good point.

-- 
Robin Laing