Paul Eggert wrote: > > > Date: Tue, 02 Apr 2002 22:41:50 -0800 > > From: Dan Kegel <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > > > > Clearly, one would also want cp --clean. > > "rm --clean" would be far more useful. I've often wanted that, > usually right after I've removed the wrong thing. > > (Sorry, Akim, couldn't resist....)
But, seriously, one could accomplish this with the currently fictions tools `dirsnap' and `dirrestore'. Dirsnap would snapshot a project directory and dirrestore would return the directory to it's original state. Dirsnap could simply be `tar -cf /tmp/foo.tar' and dirrestore could simply be `rm -rf *; tar -xf /tmp/foo.tar'. If you didn't want that, then dirsnap could simply be a saved `ls -R' listing and dirrestore could be an awk script that parses the listing and removes anything that doesn't exist in the list. My point is, there are a number of ways to accomplish the desired result. However, --clean for all tools isn't the correct way to go about it. The only tools needing to know how to clean a project directory are config.status, configure and make. Anyone building projects in the source directory should be convinced to do otherwise. It should be a requirement of configure to refuse to execute in it's parent directory or any directory that isn't empty, without at least a warning should be issued and a confirmation. Exceptions to that could be if files created by configure already exists in the directory. Sorry, I seem to be rambling. But I hope I've made some valid observations/points/suggestions. Earnie. _________________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Get your free @yahoo.com address at http://mail.yahoo.com
