Re: dired mode recursive delete

[Kevin Rodgers]

Richard Stallman wrote:
>     I'm uneasy about `top' vs. t as the default: when I'm prompted 
>     "Recursive delete of SUBDIR? ", I expect that if I answer "yes"
>     that I'll be prompted for SUBDIR's subdirectories as well.
>
> It asks about recursively deleting the directory's contents.

I interpret "recursive" as an explanation of why I'm being prompted: the
directory has a subdirectory, and deleting the directory in toto is
therefore a recursive operation.

> So I think it is clear that you're saying yes to all the levels.

But my experience with the Unix rm command leads me to expect that
when I respond affirmatively that I am only saying yes to this level:

-bash-2.05b$ mkdir -p /tmp/foo/bar
-bash-2.05b$ touch /tmp/foo/bar/baz
-bash-2.05b$ \rm -ri /tmp/foo
examine files in directory /tmp/foo? y
examine files in directory /tmp/foo/bar? y
remove /tmp/foo/bar/baz? y
remove /tmp/foo/bar? y
remove /tmp/foo? y
-bash-2.05b$

--
Kevin Rodgers
Denver, Colorado, USA