How do I remove the following file...

John (EBo) David plug-discuss@lists.PLUG.phoenix.az.us
Wed, 22 Aug 2001 09:25:56 -0700


Nick Estes wrote:
> 
> -----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----
> Hash: SHA1
> 
> > > Jeffrey Pyne wrote:
> > > >
> > > > Method #217 to skin this cat:
> > > >
> > > > # ls -i *q
> > > > 363592  \033:\033\033::q
> >
> > ok, why not just
> >     rm *q

the "-i" option is interactive.  That way if you have something
important in the directory that has a "q" in it you will not remove it
out of hand.  Imagine you have been working on a project and spent a 100
hours on the FAQ which is named "faq.html".  You would likely find it
REALLY anoying to blow away your faq with the junk file you creater... 
Now I've never done this myself 8-/  or NEVER, and I mean NEVER
accidently typed a space between the "*" and the "q" with a "-rf"
options set (therby deleating all the subdirectories recursively on a
machine that had not been backed up in 3 years....  I was "helping"
somone that day...  Oh yea, that has NEVER happened to me... that is why
I: 1) alias rm to be rm -i, 2) move files to a trash directory, 3)
remove them and abort the rm command after the first one or two, and
then 4) reissue the command by putting a "\" in the front (telling the
shell to execute the command without aliasing it)...  Yes it is a long
way around, but since I started doing that I haven't lost any files by
accident, and like I said it has NEVER happend to me ;-)

 EBo --