On Tue, Apr 20, 2004 at 03:10:19AM +0900, d l wrote:
>
> As far as i know if u use brace to qoute a char/string,
> bash will not tries to expand/subsitute it.
>
> so in your case
>
> rm -rf '~'
>
> should work
Watch out for hints that "should work". ;-)
When in doubt make a dummy user account with no privileges and
play with the problem.
What I would try in my dummy account is:
cd ~
mkdir BigJunkPile
mv -i ./'~' BigJunkPile
ls -ld BigJunkPile
ls -l BigJunkPile # is my bad boy dir there.
rm -ri BigJunkPile
or
cd ~
mkdir BigJunkPile
mv -i ./'~' BigJunkPile/TwiddleJunk
ls -ld BigJunkPile
ls -l BigJunkPile # is my bad boy dir there should be called TwiddleJunk
rm -ri BigJunkPile
The key with file names that contain meta characters of any kind is to
find a safe place to tinker and RTFM. In this case the bash man page
has a number of paragraphs on Tilde Expansion. Here is one:
"Tilde Expansion
"If a word begins with an unquoted tilde character (â~â), all of the
characters preceding the first unquoted slash (or all characters, if
there is no unquoted slash) are considered a tilde-prefix. If none of
the characters in the tilde-prefix are quoted, the characters in the
tilde-prefix following the tilde are treated as a possible login name.
If this login name is the null string, the tilde is replaced with the
value of the shell parameter HOME. If HOME is unset, the home direc-
tory of the user executing the shell is substituted instead. Other-
wise, the tilde-prefix is replaced with the home directory associated
with the specified login name.
....
and more
BTW: both work....
[BoxA]$ ls
Desktop evolution Gorp mail Mail mbox SELinux
[BoxA]$ mkdir '~'
[BoxA]$ cd '~'
[BoxA[BoxAch bark tree grass bugs
[BoxAbark bugs grass tree
[BoxA[BoxA]$ cd ~
[BoxA]$ ls
~ Desktop evolution Gorp mail Mail mbox SELinux
[BoxA]$ cd ~
[BoxA]$ mkdir BigJunkPile
[BoxA]$ mv -i ./'~' BigJunkPile
[BoxA]$ ls -ld BigJunkPile
drwxrwxr-x 3 BoxA Apr 19 14:06 BigJunkPile
[BoxA]$ ls -l BigJunkPile
total 8
drwxrwxr-x 2 BoxA Apr 19 14:05 ~
[BoxA]$
[BoxA]$ ls
BigJunkPile Desktop evolution Gorp mail Mail mbox SELinux
[BoxA]$ cd '~'
-bash: cd: ~: No such file or directory
[BoxA]$ mkdir '~'
[BoxA]$ cd '~'
[BoxA]$ ls
[BoxA]$ touch bark tree grass bugs
[BoxA]$ cd
[BoxA]$ mv BigJunkPile/ BigJunkPile1
[BoxA]$ ls
~ BigJunkPile1 Desktop evolution Gorp mail Mail mbox SELinux
[BoxA]$ cd ~
[BoxA]$ mkdir BigJunkPile
[BoxA]$ mv -i ./'~' BigJunkPile/TwiddleJunk
[BoxA]$ ls -ld BigJunkPile
drwxrwxr-x 3 BoxA Apr 19 14:08 BigJunkPile
[BoxA]$ ls -l BigJunkPile
total 8
drwxrwxr-x 2 BoxA Apr 19 14:07 TwiddleJunk
[BoxA]$ ls
BigJunkPile BigJunkPile1 Desktop evolution Gorp mail Mail mbox SELinux
[BoxA]$
[BoxA]$ rm -ri BigJunkPile
rm: descend into directory `BigJunkPile'? y
rm: descend into directory `BigJunkPile/TwiddleJunk'? y
rm: remove regular empty file `BigJunkPile/TwiddleJunk/bark'? y
rm: remove regular empty file `BigJunkPile/TwiddleJunk/tree'? y
rm: remove regular empty file `BigJunkPile/TwiddleJunk/grass'? y
rm: remove regular empty file `BigJunkPile/TwiddleJunk/bugs'? y
rm: remove directory `BigJunkPile/TwiddleJunk'? y
rm: remove directory `BigJunkPile'? y
[BoxA]$ rm -ri BigJunkPile1/
rm: descend into directory `BigJunkPile1/'? y
rm: descend into directory `BigJunkPile1//~'? y
rm: remove regular empty file `BigJunkPile1//~/bark'? y
rm: remove regular empty file `BigJunkPile1//~/tree'? y
rm: remove regular empty file `BigJunkPile1//~/grass'? y
rm: remove regular empty file `BigJunkPile1//~/bugs'? y
rm: remove directory `BigJunkPile1//~'? y
rm: remove directory `BigJunkPile1/'? y
[BoxA]$
--
T o m M i t c h e l l
/dev/null the ultimate in secure storage.
