this post was submitted on 13 Jun 2024
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Linux is a family of open source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991 by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically packaged in a Linux distribution (or distro for short).
Distributions include the Linux kernel and supporting system software and libraries, many of which are provided by the GNU Project. Many Linux distributions use the word "Linux" in their name, but the Free Software Foundation uses the name GNU/Linux to emphasize the importance of GNU software, causing some controversy.
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Maybe use a graphical file manager?
Or move the folder to /tmp or so.
That's a good suggestion for some, but I'm quite comfortable with the command line.
It's not that I'm irrationally scared of
rm -rf. I know what that command will do. If I slow down an pay attention it's not as though I'm worried "I hope this doesn't break my system".What I really mean is I see myself becoming quite comfortable typing
rm -rfand running it with little thought, I use it often to delete git repos, and my frequent use and level of comfort with this command doesn't match the level of danger it brings.Just moving them to
/tmpis a nice suggestion that can work on anywhere without special programs or scripts.You don't sound like you're comfortable with the command line.
Just checked my command history and I've run 60,000 commands on this computer without problem (and I have other computers). I guess people have different ideas of what "comfortable" means, but I think I consider myself comfortable with the command line.
I have shot myself in the foot with
rm -rfin the past though, and screwed up my computer so bad the easiest solution was to reinstall the OS from scratch. My important files are backed up, including most of my dotfiles, but being a bit too quick to type and run arm -rfcommand has caused me needless hours of work in the past.I realized the main reason I have to use
rm -rfis to remove git repos and so I thought I'd ask if anyone has a tip to avoid it. And I've found some good suggestions among the least upvoted comments.I'm the same as you! I recommend "trash-cli", then you can undo if you mess something up. You can even set an alias to echo "wrong command" if you use 'RM'.
If you're making backups of things you care about and not running
sudo rm -rfthe command isn't really dangerous.But +1 for having it in /tmp I have a bash function I call tempd that is basically
cd $(mktemp -d)I use it so much for stuff I dont really care to keep.Never heard of mktemp before, that's need. Come to think of it I never thought about how /tmp is really used by the system in the first place, time to do do studying I guess