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Date:      Sun, 01 Jul 2018 17:19:58 -0500
From:      Paul Schmehl <paul.schmehl@gmail.com>
To:        "John R. Levine" <johnl@iecc.com>
Cc:        freebsd-questions@freebsd.org
Subject:   Re: Problem deleting files
Message-ID:  <E90E9AD551526FDA45C57E3A@Pauls-MacBook-Pro.local>
In-Reply-To: <alpine.OSX.2.21.1807011556150.48232@ary.local>
References:  <20180701202153.A94AA28BD3C2@ary.local> <010DDED160955AC68C7EFA46@Pauls-MacBook-Pro.local> <alpine.OSX.2.21.1807011556150.48232@ary.local>

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--On July 1, 2018 at 4:01:48 PM -0500 "John R. Levine" <johnl@iecc.com> 
wrote:

>>>  $ rm -rf .
>>>
>>>  (Be really sure you're in the right directory.)
>>
>> Yes, I did. It returned argument list too long.
>
> Not to contradict you, but the phrase "too long" does not appear in the
> source code to the rm program, and I am reasonably sure it does not
> produce that message.  On the other hand the shell does produce that
> message when expanding wild cards.  So are you sure you tried this:
>
> $ rm -rf .
>
> and not this?
>
> $ rm -rf *
>
> They're not the same.
>

# rm -fr .
rm: "." and ".." may not be removed

# rm -fr *
bash: /bin/rm: Argument list too long

> Regards,
> John Levine, johnl@iecc.com, Primary Perpetrator of "The Internet for
> Dummies",
> Please consider the environment before reading this e-mail. https://jl.ly
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Paul Schmehl
Independent Researcher



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