Re: rm question

["David Z. Maze" <dmaze@mit.edu>]

Antonio Rodriguez <arodriguez@worldnet.att.net> writes:
AR> I want to delete a directory with a whole bunch of embeded
AR> subdirectories, I did
AR> rm -d kdeo
AR>  and I get Operation not permitted.
AR> Now, I am doing it as root, so, the permission should not be an issue.
AR> Whats the problem? Is there a better way of removing a sequence of such
AR> embedded directories?

Yup.  What 'rm -d' is supposed to do actually requires a bit of
not-necessarily-useful explanation; the end result is that it's
something that even as root you wouldn't want to do.  The correct
magic is 'rm -r', which (r)ecursively deletes all directories and
files in and under the named directory (or file).

See also the info page ('info rm') for more information.  (Linux
doesn't support unlink()ing directories, and running 'fsck' every time
you removed a directory would get to be a real pain *real* quickly.)

-- 
David Maze             dmaze@mit.edu          http://www.mit.edu/~dmaze/
"Theoretical politics is interesting.  Politicking should be illegal."
	-- Abra Mitchell