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Dec 14, 2017 at 15:09 comment added Stéphane Chazelas @Guru, yes those !(...) patterns come from ksh (ksh88, ksh86a didn't have them), they're enabled with set -o kshglob in zsh (zsh also has its own (more usable if you ask me) extensions, and zsh like pdksh or fish already do the right thing when it comes to . and .. in globs). With ksh, you get an interesting outcome if you do FIGNORE='!(..)' ksh -c 'echo rm -rf */*'
Dec 14, 2017 at 10:05 history edited Stéphane Chazelas CC BY-SA 3.0
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Dec 14, 2017 at 9:57 history edited Stéphane Chazelas CC BY-SA 3.0
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Dec 14, 2017 at 9:45 history edited Stéphane Chazelas CC BY-SA 3.0
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Dec 14, 2017 at 3:52 comment added Escoce maybe in modern shells. It wasn't always that way. I left that depth of system administration and development more than 15 years ago
Dec 14, 2017 at 3:49 comment added Escoce @GuruAdrian sure, * means match everything so .* = .filename but also ../ and therefore ../.. and ../../.. ad infinatum until you run out of bitspace for the command.
Dec 14, 2017 at 2:23 comment added Escoce I bet $ rm -rf .* = rm -rf / in a convoluted way to get there.
Dec 14, 2017 at 0:18 comment added Aaron D. Marasco As a young co-op SA, I tried erasing the hidden files in a user's directory on SunOS w/ rm -rf .* from his home dir. Shortly after, all the phone lines lit up...
Dec 13, 2017 at 23:46 history edited Stéphane Chazelas CC BY-SA 3.0
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Dec 13, 2017 at 23:33 history edited terdon CC BY-SA 3.0
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Dec 13, 2017 at 23:31 vote accept terdon
Dec 13, 2017 at 23:30 history edited Stéphane Chazelas CC BY-SA 3.0
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Dec 13, 2017 at 23:24 comment added JdeBP Bryan Cantrill tells a story about this. See also superuser.com/questions/742334 and superuser.com/questions/542978 .
Dec 13, 2017 at 23:19 history answered Stéphane Chazelas CC BY-SA 3.0