Subject: bug#12339: Gnu rm, changed only recently (4-5 years), and didn't follow letter of posix...(statement follows)

From: Assaf Gordon <[email-masked]>
Date: Fri, 18 Jan 2019 02:29:24 -0700

close 12339
stop

(triaging old bugs)

Hello,

This long and winding thread covers several topics
relating to rm(1), historical unix and POSIX compatibility
(and a bugfix or two in the mix).

An enlightening read for those interested...
( https://bugs.gnu.org/12339 )

But the bottom line is:

    rm -rf .

will not delete the content of the current directory
(while keeping the directory itself) and that is not likely to change.

Two suggested alternatives:

    find . -delete
    rm -rf * .[!.] .??*

As such, and with no more comments in 6 years, I'm closing this bug.

PLEASE do not reply to this thread.

If there are other relevant issues (that have not been discussed
elsewhere, and have not been previously rejected),
please start a new thread by emailing [email-masked] .

regards,
  - assaf