On 10/15/25 05:31, Collin Funk wrote:
I think the original option is clear enough and is much shorter. If a user misses the description in --help and runs 'rm -rf /' they will be saved with a friendly warning message:$ rm -rf / rm: it is dangerous to operate recursively on '/' rm: use --no-preserve-root to override this failsafe
yes, that message is pretty clear IMO. If one doesn't take the time to understand the --no-preserve-root option, then that person most probably doesn't bother to use it. And then, the failsafe - which is mandated by POSIX btw. - is guarding the user from killing the system. I can't think of a reason to use --no-preserve-root and to delete everything under '/' other than for academic purposes or curiosity. Still, if there is an even clearer phrasing for the above error diagnostic or the --help output, then we'd welcome such change. Yet I don't see that changing the option name would be necessary. Have a nice day, Berny
