rm -iR

From	Jan Schaumann <jschauma@netmeister.org>
Newsgroups	muc.lists.netbsd.tech.userlevel
Subject	rm -iR
Date	2026-02-03 14:30 -0500
Organization	Newsgate at muc.de e.V.
Message-ID	<aYJM5gKn0cEA4EFA@netmeister.org> (permalink)

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Hello,

rm(1) currently says for the '-R' flag:

"If the -i option is specified, the user is prompted
for confirmation before each directory's contents are
processed (as well as before the attempt is made to
remove the directory)."

But it's actually a bit misleading and only prompts
for _removal_ of a directory, not for processing the
contents:

$ mkdir -p dir/subdir/subsub dir/subdir2
$ touch dir/file dir/subdir/file dir/subdir/subsub/file dir/subdir2/file
$ rm -ir dir
remove 'dir'? n
$

On macOS, rm(1) behaves like this:

$ rm -ir dir
examine files in directory dir? y
examine files in directory dir/subdir2? y
remove dir/subdir2/file? n
examine files in directory dir/subdir2/subsub? n
remove dir/subdir2? 

Linux / GNU coreutils likewise:

$ rm -ir dir
rm: descend into directory 'dir'? y
rm: descend into directory 'dir/subdir'? y
rm: remove regular empty file 'dir/subdir/file'? n
rm: descend into directory 'dir/subdir/subsub'? n
rm: remove regular empty file 'dir/file'? 

That behavior seems to match what the manual page
describes much more than what we do.  Should we match
that?

-Jan

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rm -iR Jan Schaumann <jschauma@netmeister.org> - 2026-02-03 14:30 -0500
  Re: rm -iR Greg Troxel <gdt@lexort.com> - 2026-02-03 15:21 -0500
    Re: rm -iR Jan Schaumann <jschauma@netmeister.org> - 2026-02-03 16:11 -0500
      Re: rm -iR Greg Troxel <gdt@lexort.com> - 2026-02-03 17:27 -0500
        Re: rm -iR Robert Elz <kre@munnari.OZ.AU> - 2026-02-04 15:46 +0700
  Re: rm -iR Mouse <mouse@Rodents-Montreal.ORG> - 2026-02-03 16:52 -0500
  Re: rm -iR RVP <rvp@SDF.ORG> - 2026-02-04 05:48 +0000
    Re: rm -iR Jan Schaumann <jschauma@netmeister.org> - 2026-02-06 16:33 -0500
      Re: rm -iR Reinoud Zandijk <reinoud@NetBSD.org> - 2026-04-19 18:15 +0200
        Re: rm -iR Jan Schaumann <jschauma@netmeister.org> - 2026-04-25 16:24 -0400

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