Stop Using `rm` in Bash. Use `del` • Hacker News Board

Re: Stop Using `rm` in Bash. Use `del`

#11

Post by majewsky » Sun, Mar 17, 2019, 1:20 PM UTC

joelthelion wrote: post #10

surfsvammel wrote: post #5

rm is for removing stuff. If you don’t want to remove the file, use mv. Take care when entering commands, if it’s important that you don’t mess up, spend an extra second. Don’t run around shooting rm -rf as super user. With great powers comes great responsibility.

Would be nice if filesystems were garbage collected, though. I don't see a fundamental reason why rm couldn't be undoable the second after you issue it.

It usually is: http://extundelete.sourceforge.net

Re: Stop Using `rm` in Bash. Use `del`

#12

Post by majewsky » Sun, Mar 17, 2019, 1:21 PM UTC

fxfan wrote: post #2

I wish something like this were built into kernel filesystem driver. All deletions automatically go to this specific place in the filesystem.

This would be fun as an experiment to see how quickly it fills up the drive, but probably utterly useless in production. A lot of stuff is creating and deleting files all the time, e.g. logrotate.

Re: Stop Using `rm` in Bash. Use `del`

#13

Post by emondi » Sun, Mar 17, 2019, 1:22 PM UTC

I move to /tmp and it gets deleted on next reboot.

Re: Stop Using `rm` in Bash. Use `del`

#14

Post by chipironcin » Sun, Mar 17, 2019, 1:25 PM UTC

dan-robertson wrote: post #9

floatingatoll wrote: post #4

While not an alternative, please bugfix your bash: mv "$@" ~/.Trash/ https://github.com/koalaman/shellcheck/wiki/SC2086

Even simpler: alias del="mv -t ~/.Trash/"

Now let's delete them after roughtly 30 days:

  alias del="mv -t ~/.Trash/ ; find ~/.Trash/ -mtime +30 -exec rm {} \;"

Re: Stop Using `rm` in Bash. Use `del`

#15

Post by devnonymous » Sun, Mar 17, 2019, 1:26 PM UTC

fxfan wrote: post #2

I wish something like this were built into kernel filesystem driver. All deletions automatically go to this specific place in the filesystem.

...and then how do you delete it from that specific place when you are sure you want it gone? A new syscall?

In seriousness tho, if you're ever wondering why such and such thing is not builtin into the kernel read up on separation of policy and mechanism eg:

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Separation_of_mechanism_and_...

Re: Stop Using `rm` in Bash. Use `del`

#16

Post by amelius » Sun, Mar 17, 2019, 1:28 PM UTC

This is another example that shows that Bash (and similar shells) should not be used for scripting.

It's great for the command line, but for scripting there are much better, cleaner, faster and safer alternatives.

Re: Stop Using `rm` in Bash. Use `del`

#17

Post by taneq » Sun, Mar 17, 2019, 1:29 PM UTC

everdrive wrote: post #6

I've never liked the idea of a trashcan, and usually shift-delete when I'm in the gui. Deleting shouldn't be done casually, but a ui shouldn't second guess a user any more than it has to.

I habitually shift+delete too, but I won't say I've never made a mistake.

It's much less hazardous doing this when everything is in source control, though. :)

Re: Stop Using `rm` in Bash. Use `del`

#18

Post by amelius » Sun, Mar 17, 2019, 1:30 PM UTC

Or use a snapshotting filesystem, so you can simply go back in time if you mess up.

Re: Stop Using `rm` in Bash. Use `del`

#19

Post by clircle » Sun, Mar 17, 2019, 1:30 PM UTC

If you spend most of your time in emacs, and like to delete/move files in dired, you can use

(setq delete-by-moving-to-trash t)

to achieve the same effect.

Re: Stop Using `rm` in Bash. Use `del`

#20

Post by goshx » Sun, Mar 17, 2019, 1:33 PM UTC

This was one of the first things I realized I had to do back when I installed a Red Hat 3.0 for the first time.

My alias was for rm itself. I replaced it completely, as the habit of using rm is hard to forget. Today I don’t use an alias anymore.