GNU bug report logs - #10819
[BUG][RM]

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From: "Voelker, Bernhard" <bernhard.voelker <at> siemens-enterprise.com>
To: Jim Meyering <jim <at> meyering.net>, Davide Brini <dave_br <at> gmx.com>
Cc: "10819 <at> debbugs.gnu.org" <10819 <at> debbugs.gnu.org>
Subject: bug#10819: [BUG][RM]
Date: Thu, 16 Feb 2012 11:17:16 +0100

Jim Meyering wrote:
> Davide Brini wrote:
> ...
> > At least in bash, but I suppose in other shells too,
> >
> > rm -rf #*
> >
> > treats the "#*" part as a comment, and (if you remove the "-f") complains
> > about missing operand to rm.
> 
> That is the default, but for an interactive shell,
> that behavior can be changed:
> 
>     $ echo a b # c
>     a b
>     $ shopt -u interactive_comments
>     $ echo a b # c
>     a b # c

I think Davide's point is not about the # comment ... rm won't see
that on argv anyway. The point is that 'rm -f' does not complain about
missing operands while 'rm' does:

  $ rm 
  rm: missing operand
  Try `rm --help' for more information.
  $ rm -f
  $

According to the info, '-f' just silences error messages for files
which do not exist (and never to prompt for confirmation), but why
should it also affect the "missing operand" message?

Have a nice day,
Berny

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