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From: Greg Troxel <gdt@lexort.com>
Newsgroups: muc.lists.netbsd.tech.userlevel
Subject: Re: rm -iR
Date: Tue, 03 Feb 2026 17:27:22 -0500
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In-Reply-To: <aYJkncZX_10a_JUK@netmeister.org> (Jan Schaumann's message of "Tue, 3 Feb 2026 16:11:57 -0500")
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Jan Schaumann <jschauma@netmeister.org> writes:

> Greg Troxel <gdt@lexort.com> wrote:
>
>> We should ensure that the code and the man page conform to POSIX
>
>> https://pubs.opengroup.org/onlinepubs/9799919799/utilities/rm.html
>
> I think that language can be interpreted to justify
> either behavior.

I sort of thought that at first, but there is a recursion rule, and if
you read the spec like a computer, I think only the macos/linux behavior
is ok.  But it's really hard for me to be sure I'm reading it right.

>> It's a good question how FreeBSD documents -i and processes it.
>
> FreeBSD behaves (and documents) like NetBSD.

Perhaps -i arose in BSD.  rm's -r option is earlier; I am pretty sure I
remember it from Seventh Edition and probably Sixth.

and to mouse about -r vs -R, posix says:

  -R
      Remove file hierarchies. See the DESCRIPTION.
  -r
      Equivalent to -R.

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