Subject: bug#45924: RFE: rmdir -r: recursively remove [empty] directories under the target.

From: L A Walsh <[email-masked]>
Date: Mon, 18 Jan 2021 02:53:42 -0800

Except that 'find DIR -depth -type d -exec rmdir {} +'
is anything but simple and not something anyone outside of
a minority of *nix users would have a clue about how to 
create, whereas 'rmdir -r DIR' is both direct and simple and
more easily understandable by those who know how to remove
a directory and recursively remove files. Applying the -r
option of 'rm' and 'rd's focus on dirs seems a natural 
combination.

Gnu authors seem to pride themselves on their technical and
programming expertise (and not necessarily, w/o reason); but like
many high-level engineers, seem to lose touch with the concept of
'user-friendly' and often, it seems, tend toward the idea that the
users can and should adapt to the program(s) for the sake of
the programs (and engineers).  This is in contrast to the idea
of computers (and programs) being designed as tools to aid, assist,
simplify and empower those who use such tools.

On 2021/01/17 14:18, Paul Eggert wrote:
> On 1/16/21 4:29 PM, L A Walsh wrote:
>> Yes, you could do it some other way, like by using 'find'
> 
> That's what I'd do, yes. 'find DIR -depth -type d -exec rmdir {} +'. I 
> doubt whether it's worth hacking on this at the C level (complicating 
> the documentation too) when there's such a simple and portable way to do 
> this unusual task already.