Here's a summary of ways to protect yourself from accidentally deleting files:
Use rm -i , possibly as an alias (articles 21.11 possibly and 23.7 ).
Make rm -i less painful (article 23.6 ).
Write a "delete" script that moves "deleted" files to a temporary directory (article 23.8 ).
tcsh
(
8.3
)
has an
rmstar
variable that makes the shell ask for confirmation when you type something like
rm *
.
Use a more comprehensive "safe delete" program, like the one described in article 23.9 .
Use revision control (article 20.12 ).
Make your own backups, as explained in article 20.2 .
Prevent deletion (or renaming or creating) of files by making the directory (not necessarily the files in it!) unwritable. Article 22.2 .
If you want to delete with wild abandon, use rm -f (article 23.10 ).
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