how do you delete files?

otoomet · 11-11-2004, 01:13 AM

Dear people,

I am just curious how are the others deleting files on command line. After a (well known) mistake trying to remove all junk files by

$ rm foo*

but instead typing

$ rm foo *

in my working directory, I wrote two scripts: the first one moves all requested files into ~/.Trash, and the second one, invoced by cron, purges trash for files more than a week old. Now it seems to me such a natural way that I would like to have something similar as default on every computer. I think delayed removing is the only way to make rm safe, different confirmations you just get used to answer "y" every time.

So, what are your ways to delete files?

Best,

Ott

perfect_circle · 11-11-2004, 02:02 AM

that's a really classic mistake. you will find it in many Un*x books.
I assure you everybody uses rm.

if you want you can alias "rm" to "rm -i" and use interactive mode as default ( confirm every deletion)

this will prevent this type of mistakes, since you can answer no, or type Ctrl+C to stop the hole process

otoomet · 11-11-2004, 06:24 AM

Well, my opinions is that it is only marginally safer to use 'rm -i', because one gets used always answering "y". At least this was what happened to me using mc's "safe delete".

Best,

Ott

r0b0 · 11-11-2004, 08:58 AM

I have a great way to remove files.
I use rm, but instead of tapping Enter after I write the command, I always breathe in and out before pressing Enter.
It has never failed me and saved my a** a couple of times.

animehair · 11-11-2004, 10:18 AM

HAHA that is great!! You made my day! ( in a computer nerd way hehehe)

otoomet - i would like to see those scripts, especially the trash one.

lectraplayer · 11-11-2004, 06:11 PM

I usually do my file manager through KDE's Konqueror, but you do have a point on making the rm command safer by aliasing it with a "move" script of some sort. I've lost my arse a couple times from rm'ing what I thought was one folder, when it was another.

otoomet · 11-12-2004, 04:06 AM

Here are my scripts. I have never thought they can be of interest for the others, so here are not many comments and some texts are in Estonian. The first one, for deleting (called del):

Code:

#!/bin/bash
KQNTS=$HOME/.Trash
case $# in
    0)
	echo "Viga: põle meskit kaotada..."
	exit 1
	;;
esac
test -d $KQNTS || mkdir $KQNTS
echo "Niisugused fail(id) tqstetud kataloogi $KQNTS:"
for fail; do
    if [ -e "$fail" ]; then
	touch "$fail"
	PATHNAME=${fail%/*}
	FNAME=${fail#$PATHNAME/}
	if [ "x$FNAME" == "x" ]; then
	    # $file ends with '/'.  Need to do differently:
	    PATHNAME=${fail%/*/}
	    FNAME=${fail#$PATHNAME/}
	fi
    # FNAME is the filename (or the dir name to be removed) w/o path
	if [ -d "$KQNTS/$FNAME" ]; then
	    echo "removing $KQNTS/$FNAME"
	    rm -rf "$KQNTS/$FNAME"
	fi
	mv "$fail" $KQNTS
	echo "  $fail"
    else
	echo "      $fail is missing"
    fi
done

There script is long because otherwise you just cannot mv a directory into trash if there already exists one with the same name. You have to rm -rf it before. And you have to check whether it was executed as

$ del path/dir

or

$del path/dir/

The second one, for purging trash:

Code:

#!/bin/sh
kodo=$HOME
kodojuur=${kodo%/*}
KQNTS=.Trash
if test "x$1" = x; then
    kodojuur="/home"
    kasutajad=$(ls $kodojuur)
else
    kasutajad=$1
fi
for kasutaja in $kasutajad 
do 
  # Kui kaua hoida rampsu prugikastis
  aeg="+7"
  if [ "$kasutaja" = "tiina" ]; then
      aeg="+20"
  fi
    if test -d $kodojuur/$kasutaja/$KQNTS; then
	find $kodojuur/$kasutaja/$KQNTS -maxdepth 1 -ctime $aeg -exec rm -rf {} \;
    fi
done

it checks whether it is invoked for a specific user of for all users, gives 20 day expiration delay for my wife and only 7 for the others ;-)

best,

Ott