Say I wanted to make sure I'm removing the right files first, so I did something like:

rm -i *

just to make sure that I'm okay with the files that I am removing. So this will ask me for each file. After a few files, suppose I realize it's exactly what I wanted to remove. Instead of CTRL+Cing and just doing rm *, is there a way I can just say Yes to all?

This question comes more so from curiosity rather than functionality.

1

7 Answers

No.

(Unless you find a way to flip the 'interactive' bit with a debugger.)

5

Well, this doesn't really answer your question. But instead of using rm -i, consider aliasing rm to rm -I:

The man page states:

-I prompt once before removing more than three files, or when removing recursively. Less intrusive than -i, while still giving protection against most mistakes

in your ~/.bashrc, put:

 alias rm='rm -I'

this is actually useful!

0

Is there a way I can just say Yes to all?

The answer is yes, using this code:

$ yes "yes" | rm -vRI directory

• v: show the list of files that have been removed
• R: remove directories and their contents recursively
• I: as per the recommendation above.

Just check first using ls *.bla and then rm -f *.bla maybe?

Use caution!

1

If you are running in screen (a good idea in general), you can do:

ctrl-a : exec .! yes y

This would cause screen to run the 'yes' command with y being the output, and direct said output to the running program (rm -i).

This can be done by replacing the application file descriptors on the fly. You'll need an intermediate file though.

You can use gdb and a named pipe like this (assuming you are using more terminals, else you have to use screen or something else):

• create a named pipe with "mkfifo myYesYesPipe"
• start the interactive copy with rm -i and find its PID
• open gdb

Then type the following commands in gdb, replacing the PID

attach rmPID
call open("/path/to/myYesYesPipe",66,0666)
call dup2(3,0)
call close(3)
detach
quit

This replaces the keyboard with a named pipe for rm.

Now you have to fill the named pipe

• run yes > /path/to/myYesYesPipe

rm will read the pipe and overwrite everything.

1

1. Put the rm process in the background with Ctrl+Z.
2. Recall the last command (the rm -i * command)
3. Remove the -i
4. Enter to run the command
5. fg %1
6. Ctrl+C

2

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