rm and symbolic links (4.2)

archiel at hercules.UUCP archiel at hercules.UUCP
Wed Jun 6 08:52:19 AEST 1984


I just found out the hard way that if one runs "rm -r" on a directory that
contains a symbolic link, the object that the link points to gets removed
(recursively).  Since plain old "rm" run on a symbolic link removes the
link but NOT the object that it points to, I was surprised by this behavior
(no flames, please).

This behavior is, in my opinion, not obvious until after you've experienced it.
I am submitting this so that no one who reads it will be similarly surprised.
Be careful of this one.  It can really hurt!
-- 

				Archie Lachner
				Logic Design Systems Division
				Tektronix, Inc.

uucp:    {ucbvax,decvax,pur-ee,cbosg,ihnss}!tektronix!teklds!archiel
CSnet:   archiel at tek
ARPAnet: archiel.tek at csnet-relay



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