Re: rm: remove `/tmp/a'? yahoo

[Alfred M. Szmidt]

Dan Jacobson <address@hidden> writes:
> $ alias rm='rm -i'
> $ rm /tmp/a
> rm: remove `/tmp/a'? yahoo
> Blam.  The user somehow typed the wrong string (yahoo)to the wrong window,
> and blammo, his file is history.

How exactly is this a bug? The response started with `y'.  Please be
more specific on how this is a bug.

> Also on the man page give some leads about where to find more info on this:
> 
>        Note that if you use rm to remove a file,  it  is  usually
>        possible  to  recover  the  contents of that file.  If you
>        want more assurance that the contents are truly unrecover-
>        able, consider using shred.
> 
> as a panicked user might be reading the rm page to figure out any way
> to restore a file, looking for any leads.  Perhaps he has deleted his
> modem setup file and finds that he can't just connect to the net to
> search...

This is very file-system specific, and usually needs root access to be
accomplished.  This is probably why it is not documented to any great
detail.

Cheers,
-- 
Alfred M. Szmidt