On 07/24/05 07:16 AM, Mario Hoerich sat at the `puter and typed: > # Aaron Siegel: > > > [ there is no un-rm ] > > > > One option I have seen for creating your own restore is to create a script > > that will move files you want to delete to a temporary directory, a "Trash > > Bin". Then use your shells aliases to alias the script to the rm command. > > Don't *ever* create aliases for rm(1). rm's sole purpose in > life is to destroy files. If you tame it, you'll eventually > adapt and rm with less caution. There are lots of people who > eventually got bitten by that when working on a machine other > than their own. > > A better way is to use a name like "[tT]rash" or "tt" (=[move] > to trash). That way, when working on a machine without your > script, you'll get a nice and friendly "command not found" > reminding you there's no safety catch. > > I'm personally none too fond of this, though. Unixoid systems > have quite a lot of ways to destroy files. Trashes won't really > protect you from that. Instead, they just give you a false > feeling of security, which merely encourages sloppiness. > > My own solution is actually quite simple: > I treat dangerous commands the same way I'd carry a deadly and > pretty annoyed snake: with my thoughts on the task at hand. > I read the command *before* I hit enter. Not the one I > *think* I've written, but the one I'm about to execute. > I also tend to tab-expand globs to see which files are > actually affected. > > YMMV, though.
I have to second this - every bit of it. Deleting files is not an
area you want to get sloppy in. I've been bitten even knowing rm
would get rid of these files for good. I once fatfingered a space
between a '*' and '.txt' and lost a weeks worth of code work in one
fell swoop. Trust me, it's a mistake you make once and kick yourself
for indefinitely.
Trust me, I tend to use rm very carefully now, re-reading the command
each time I use it.
And no, I don't believe I'm making the case for a "trash" function. I
think that would increase the chances of sloppiness. After the
incident mentioned above, I considered the trash function, and eventually
came to the same conclusions Mario mentioned above.
Lou
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Louis LeBlanc FreeBSD-at-keyslapper-DOT-net
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