GNU bug report logs - #12339
Bug: rm -fr . doesn't dir depth first deletion yet it is documented to do so.

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From: Bob Proulx <bob <at> proulx.com>
To: Linda Walsh <coreutils <at> tlinx.org>, 12339 <at> debbugs.gnu.org
Subject: bug#12339: Bug: rm -fr . doesn't dir depth first deletion yet it is documented to do so.
Date: Mon, 3 Sep 2012 01:50:32 -0600

Jim Meyering wrote:
> Could you be thinking of some other rm?
> Coreutils' rm has rejected that for a long time:
> ...
> POSIX requires rm to reject any attempt to delete an explicitly specified
> "." or ".." argument (or any argument whose last component is one of those):

Hmm...  Wow.  I decided to check HP-UX 11.11, a now rather old release
from twelve years ago in 2000, the oldest easily available to me, and
got this:

  $ /usr/bin/rm -rf .
  rm: cannot remove .. or .

So I guess GNU coreutils is in good company with traditional Unix
systems!  It has definitely been that way for a long time.

Bob

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