On Sun, Aug 24, 2025 at 07:05:54 -0400, Zachary Santer wrote: > I'm curious what all these empty -i files are doing under version > control on the devel branch: > CWRU/-i > CWRU/old-changelogs/-i > builtins/-i > doc/-i > lib/readline/-i > tests/-i > > Commit ab17ddb7af.
It's a really old hack for "saving users from themselves". The -i file sorts to the beginning of the list in most locales, so if a user types "rm *" the command expands to "rm -i ABOUT Changelog ..." and the user is prompted and has a chance to hit Ctrl-C rather than lose all the files. It's not clear in this case whether it's meant to save the end user who clones the branch, or the developer who's working on the branch, from themself.
