rm -r

[greendragon]

is there any way int he console to delete a folder with like 100s of files in it without ahveing to type 'y' for all the files to delete..its relaly pissing me off..

[DMR]

Sure, use the f (force) option with the r option.rm -rf <directory_name>Be really careful with that though. The difference between "rm -rf /some_dir" and "rm -rf / some_dir" (note the space after /) could mean the difference between life and death for your filesystem.
:eek: :D

[fateswarm]

Don't remind me that day that I thought "sure, I'm gonna delete the whole system" and just after issueing the command, I remembered I had mount my windows partition on it :eek:

ctrl-z is always a rescue though

[Strogian]

Does Ctrl+Z stop it? I thought it just put it in the background.

[camelrider]

Ctl+C.

[TacKat]

Control-z suspends it temporarily. You then have to kill it, but it halts the damage. C-z or C-c can be a life saver - don't try to figure out which one would be better to press, just start mash one of them and quick!

[Strogian]

Oh! Is there a way to put it in the background, and still have it running?

[vee-eye]

Originally posted by Strogian:
<STRONG>Oh! Is there a way to put it in the background, and still have it running?</STRONG>

You would use the background task character:

updatedb &

Also, after you suspend it with ^Z, you can bring it into the foreground and start it again with fg PID/job number (I think that's only in Bourne-compatible shells).

Originally posted by FateSWarm:
<STRONG>Don't remind me that day that I thought "sure, I'm gonna delete the whole system" and just after issueing the command, I remembered I had mount my windows partition on it :eek:</STRONG>

Have you ever issued rm -rf / for fun as a normal user thinking, "it won't do anything... I'm not root!"

Bye-bye login directory. :(

[TacKat]

Once you suspend it with C-z, you can tell it to keep running in the background by using "bg [job number]". Check out the BASH man pages under the "job control" section.

[kuber]

Heh vee-eye, did you actually do that?
:D

[greendragon]

Heh..by what the computer is doing to me now rm -rf / as root might help mwhahah...*loks evily at the pos beside me...* "my turn to give you HEADACHES"

[NathanTwist]

i usually jsut use
rm -rf ./*

call it cheap. i dunno :p

[PimpHolic]

dont call me mean, but i extremely enjoy hearing stories of people trashing their systems :p
not that it hasn't happened to me.. but i haven't totally trashed it

[vee-eye]

Originally posted by kuber:
<STRONG>Heh vee-eye, did you actually do that?
:D</STRONG>

No, but I was actually considering doing that as a "learning experience," when I realized... :)