Hey Folks,

I'm having a slight annoying problem with a new linux box I got - the "rm" command doesn't prompt me whether I wanna remove the file or not - it works as if "--force" is turned on by default..

The man pages say
I've got the same config on 2 boxes I've got but one prompts me when I wanna delete something without --force and one doesn't (unless it isn't writable mode) - anyone has any idea how to change it so that unless I put -f or --force it will ask me? even if the mode is 777

Dragons Master,

Check your .bashrc file and make sure you have your aliases set.

Here's a copy of my .bashrc file. (Your .bashrc file is your home directory)

--------------------------------------------------
# .bashrc

# User specific aliases and functions

alias rm='rm -i'
alias cp='cp -i'
alias mv='mv -i'
alias lm='ls -m'

# Option shortcut for clearing the screen and changing the command prompt

function c {
clear
}

PS1="\@ \w : "

# Source global definitions
if [ -f /etc/bashrc ]; then
. /etc/bashrc
fi
-------------------------------------------------

If your rm alias isn't set to '-i', it won't be interactive and just do the command without you having the chance to say yes or no.

Add alias rm='rm -i' and let us know how it goes.

Good luck!

I would suggest checking aliases first. Sometimes the -f flag is added by default to a user's shell profile or RC file.

Run alias from the command line and see if you have an alias for rm. If you do, check your ~/.bash_profile or ~/.bashrc (assuming you use the bash shell) to see if the alias is automatically created in them.

On some distro's, such as Mandrake, there is an aliases script that sets the aliases for all of the users. It is sourced by the /etc/profile script when a user logs in. You can either add an entry to that file, or alter your ~/.bash_login ~/.profile or ~/.bashrc file.

This assumes that you use bash as your default shell. Another shell may have it's own startup script.

Awesome people - that works brilliantly..
I am actually using tsch so it was .cshrc, I added
alias rm 'rm -i'
and it worked perfectly after I logged out and in again..
by the way is there a command to reload .cshrc? or just the aliases? I tried newaliases but that's a postfix command, there's no man page for alias so, is there a way? just out of curiousity really 'cuz logging out and in really seems like not the optimal way of doing it

Thanks a tons folks

you can source files, which as i understand just executes them.

I use it when making changes to my .bash_profile

so you'll need the path i imagine unless running the command from the same directory

Awesome! that does the job thank you!