Confirm File Deletions in Qshell

August 2, 2002 Timothy Prickett Morgan

Hey, Ted:

I accidentally deleted a file in Qshell. I know about the -i option for the rm command, but I forget to use it. Is there any way I can make the -i option the default setting?

— Lynn

Use an alias, Lynn. An alias is an alternate name for a command string.

Add the following line to the .profile file in your home directory.

alias rm='rm -i'

If you want to change the default for all users, edit /etc/profile instead.

When you run the rm command, Qshell will substitute rm -i for the rm you type. You will see the following message for each file specified as an argument to the command.

rm: 001-2145 Do you want to remove the file 
or directory myfile (Y or N)?

You will have to type the letter y (in either upper- or lowercase) and press Enter to delete a file.

Be aware that the cp and mv commands replace files without warning. Like rm, these commands can take the -i option. You may want to define similar aliases for these two commands.

If the rm alias is defined, but you wish to avoid the confirmation prompt, use the -f option.

rm  -f  myfile

If you prefer, you can precede the command with a backslash () to avoid the prompt for confirmation.

rm  myfile

To see a list of defined aliases, type alias with no arguments on the Qshell command line and press Enter.

— Ted

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