GNU bug report logs - #9931
Remove a non empty directory

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Message #12 received at 9931-done <at> debbugs.gnu.org (full text, mbox):

From: Eric Blake <eblake <at> redhat.com>
To: Olivier LE GUEN <olg28 <at> gmx.fr>
Cc: 9931-done <at> debbugs.gnu.org
Subject: Re: bug#9931: Remove a non empty directory
Date: Tue, 01 Nov 2011 10:15:55 -0600

tag 9931 notabug
thanks

On 11/01/2011 04:55 AM, Olivier LE GUEN wrote:
>   My problem is I can't remove a non empty directory because there's no "-r" option in "rmdir".
>   How can I have a recursive function ?

Thanks for the report.  However, this is unlikely to be changed in 
'rmdir', because POSIX already standardized 'rm -r' as the way to 
recursively remove directories.  So many people are used to 'rm -r' 
doing what you are asking for, that adding an extension of 'rmdir -r' as 
an alternative would only cause confusion, not to mention that the 
extension would not be available everywhere like 'rm -r' already is.

-- 
Eric Blake   eblake <at> redhat.com    +1-801-349-2682
Libvirt virtualization library http://libvirt.org

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