Your message dated Fri, 25 Sep 2009 09:28:22 -0400
with message-id <[email protected]>
and subject line Re: Bug#548292: coreutils: rm -i silently overridden by -f
has caused the Debian Bug report #548292,
regarding coreutils: rm -i silently overridden by -f
to be marked as done.
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548292: http://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=548292
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--- Begin Message ---
Package: coreutils
Version: 6.10-3
Severity: normal
"rm -irf *" deletes everything without asking, whereas "rm -rfi *" will
ask for each item. The conflicting options -i and -f are not handled
well, and this is a problem for such a dangerous command.
At the very least, it must be documented what happens when the
conflicting options -i and -f are both given. rm, however, is a special
case which needs to be as idiot-proof as feasible. With "rm -irf" the
user clearly wants interaction, as that is the sole purpose of the -i
option. The -f option also suppresses other interaction, for example, for
write-protected files. The fact that it also suppresses -i interaction
is arguably a mis-feature. The fact that -f silently overrides -i
is not acceptable in such a dangerous command.
I see the following fixes, in order of decreasing desireability:
1) -f no longer suppresses -i interaction
2) -i -f aborts with an error message
3) current behavior documented in the manpage
-- System Information:
Debian Release: lenny/sid
APT prefers proposed-updates
APT policy: (500, 'proposed-updates'), (500, 'testing'), (500, 'stable'), (1,
'experimental')
Architecture: i386 (i686)
Kernel: Linux 2.6.21.3B
Locale: LANG=C, LC_CTYPE=C (charmap=ANSI_X3.4-1968)
Shell: /bin/sh linked to /bin/bash
Versions of packages coreutils depends on:
ii libacl1 2.2.45-1 Access control list shared library
ii libc6 2.7-10 GNU C Library: Shared libraries
ii libselinux1 2.0.59-1 SELinux shared libraries
coreutils recommends no packages.
-- no debconf information
--- End Message ---
--- Begin Message ---
On Fri, Sep 25, 2009 at 11:28:01AM +0200, Norman H. Azadian wrote:
At the very least, it must be documented what happens when the
conflicting options -i and -f are both given.
See the info docs:
`-f'
`--force'
Ignore nonexistent files and never prompt the user. Ignore any
previous `--interactive' (`-i') option.
`-i'
Prompt whether to remove each file. If the response is not
affirmative, the file is skipped. Ignore any previous `--force'
(`-f') option. Equivalent to `--interactive=always'.
1) -f no longer suppresses -i interaction
This is a POSIX requirement and will not change. Note that many systems
set -i by default as an alias, and the -f is necessary to override that
when people do not want to be bothered by annoying prompts.
Mike Stone
--- End Message ---
