GNU bug report logs - #43657
rm does not delete files

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Package: coreutils;

Reported by: "amitrao17 <at> gmail.com" <amitrao17 <at> gmail.com>

Date: Sun, 27 Sep 2020 21:44:02 UTC

Severity: normal

Done: Bob Proulx <bob <at> proulx.com>

Bug is archived. No further changes may be made.

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Message #11 received at 43657 <at> debbugs.gnu.org (full text, mbox):

From: Paul Eggert <eggert <at> cs.ucla.edu>
To: Amit Rao <amitrao17 <at> amitrao17.onmicrosoft.com>
Cc: 43657 <at> debbugs.gnu.org
Subject: Re: bug#43657: rm does not delete files
Date: Mon, 28 Sep 2020 01:01:56 -0700

On 9/27/20 8:58 PM, Amit Rao wrote:
> There's a limit? My first attempt didn't use a wildcard; i attempted to delete a directory.

'rm dir' fails because 'rm' by default leaves directories alone.

> My second attempt was rm -rf dir/*

If "dir" has too many files that will fail due to shell limitations that have 
nothing to do with Coreutils. Use 'rm -rf dir' instead.
This bug report was last modified 4 years and 219 days ago.

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