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Old 03-28-2007, 10:21 AM   #1
lumix
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Registered: Mar 2007
Distribution: Hardy (Gnome on Ubuntu 8.04) on Compaq N600c laptop
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Angry rmdir not rm'ing


I type:

"sudo rmdir --ignore-fail-on-non-empty RealPlayer"

it says:

""

I type:

"ls"

it says:
"
drwxrwsr-x 2 root staff 24 2007-03-22 01:30 bin
drwxrwsr-x 2 root staff 1 2007-03-15 18:38 etc
drwxrwsr-x 3 root staff 8 2007-03-22 01:28 games
drwxrwsr-x 2 root staff 1 2007-03-15 18:38 include
drwxrwsr-x 4 root staff 32 2007-03-18 14:53 lib
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root staff 9 2007-03-15 18:38 man -> share/man
drwxr-sr-x 3 root staff 8 2007-03-18 14:53 netscape
drwxr-sr-x 10 root root 4096 2007-03-18 15:01 RealPlayer
drwxrwsr-x 2 root staff 1 2007-03-15 18:38 sbin
drwxr-xr-x 3 root root 4096 2007-03-22 15:42 secureftp2_5
drwxrwsr-x 12 root staff 80 2007-03-15 20:14 share
drwxrwsr-x 2 root staff 1 2007-03-15 18:38 src
"

I say:

"what the $#@!"

What do you say?
 
Old 03-28-2007, 10:30 AM   #2
pwc101
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I say try using rm recursively instead (be careful!)
Code:
rm -r <your_directory>
 
Old 03-28-2007, 02:03 PM   #3
pixellany
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Registered: Nov 2005
Location: Annapolis, MD
Distribution: Mint
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What kind of response is this?
""
I've never had a Linux system give me this message......

Easier and better to first empty the directory
OR--if you are REALLY SURE: rm -rf <dirname>
 
Old 03-29-2007, 03:38 AM   #4
timmeke
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Registered: Nov 2005
Location: Belgium
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"--ignore-fail-on-non-empty" just makes rmdir ignore the fact that you're trying to remove (unlink) a non-empty directory, rather than warning you about this. Ignoring the failure to remove the directory does not imply that it goes ahead with the removal (which it can't perform). It just fails to do the removal without reporting it back to you.
 
Old 03-29-2007, 09:24 PM   #5
SlowCoder
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Location: Southeast, U.S.A.
Distribution: Debian based
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Quote:
Originally Posted by pwc101
I say try using rm recursively instead (be careful!)
Code:
rm -r <your_directory>
I give that a +1.
 
  


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