New answers tagged rm
1
vote
Why can't I use `rm -r` on a symlink pointing to a directory?
It's opinion based, but I think the most obvious reason why is safety and consistency.
The intended purpose of rm -r is to delete a directory. That named directory. But if you had a directory tree ...
- 21k
3
votes
Why can't I use `rm -r` on a symlink pointing to a directory?
so if I want to remove a symlink I need to rm symlink without the trailing /
correct, because with a trailing slash like in your rm -r symlink/ example that is telling rm explicitly that the name ...
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5
votes
Why can't I use `rm -r` on a symlink pointing to a directory?
It wouldn't be consistent, plain as that, and you even spell that out:
rm symlink_to_file deletes the symlink to the file, not the file itself
rm -r directory_containing_symlinks_to_files deletes the ...
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