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bashrm

Answer no to all questions using the yes command

I'm trying to remove all files except read-only ones, but this command removes all of them anyway:

yes n | rm *

Did I do something wrong? If not, why doesn't it work?

Solution

  • For rm to automatically enable -i mode that prompts the user to delete unwritable files, the standard input has to be a terminal (as specified in the man pages).

    So, for the command to work correctly the user has to specify the -i option manually:

    yes n | rm -i *

    After doing so the command works as expected.