View Issue Details
| ID | Project | Category | View Status | Date Submitted | Last Update |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 0000819 | 1003.1(2013)/Issue7+TC1 | Shell and Utilities | public | 2014-02-06 17:23 | 2019-06-10 08:54 |
| Reporter | rhansen | Assigned To | |||
| Priority | normal | Severity | Comment | Type | Enhancement Request |
| Status | Closed | Resolution | Accepted As Marked | ||
| Name | Richard Hansen | ||||
| Organization | BBN | ||||
| User Reference | |||||
| Section | rm | ||||
| Page Number | 3161 | ||||
| Line Number | 105682-105693 | ||||
| Interp Status | Approved | ||||
| Final Accepted Text | 0000819:0002187 | ||||
| Summary | 0000819: permit prompting only once when encountering a directory with 'rm -ir' | ||||
| Description | When 'rm -ir' encounters a directory, the standard as written requires the user to be prompted twice: Once at 2.b. (the -f option is not specified and the -i option is specified) and once at 2.d. (the -i option is specified). Some implementations (GNU coreutils, NetBSD, FreeBSD) do not follow this behavior; they prompt only once in certain conditions: * GNU coreutils skips one of the prompts if the directory is empty (but it does follow the standard if the directory is non-empty) * NetBSD always skips 2.d. This bug is about permitting this alternate behavior. | ||||
| Desired Action | Change page 3161 lines 105691-105692 (XCU rm description), change: d. If the -i option is specified, rm shall write a prompt to standard error and read a line from the standard input. to: d. If the -i option is specified, rm may write a prompt to standard error and read a line from the standard input. | ||||
| Tags | tc2-2008 | ||||
| related to | 0000802 | Closed | Add 'rm -d' |
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If we determine files are present a separate prompt is useful to cater for the following sequence in terminal 1 and terminal 2. 1> $ rm -ir foo 1> rm: descend into directory ‘foo’? y 1> rm: remove regular empty file ‘foo/bar’? n 1> rm: remove directory ‘foo’? 2> mv foo/bar /safe/foo # Handle this unknown file _independently_ 1> y By that argument, eliding the prompt for a non-empty directory is a bad idea, even if we know that the user answered no to a child (or if we hit a permissions issue that prevented removal of a child). |
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Conversely, in the non-interactive case, the error messages make it clear that on failure to remove a child, rm is not trying to remove the parent: $ mkdir foo $ touch foo/bar $ chmod 500 foo $ rm -r foo rm: descend into write-protected directory ‘foo’? y rm: cannot remove ‘foo/bar’: Permission denied It feels odd that adding '-i' determines whether rm attempts to remove what seems like a known non-empty directory - until you realize that the time spent waiting for an answer to the prompt is much longer and more likely for other things to happen in the meantime, and therefore worth the attempt when interactive. |
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Suggest adding, to accent usual use case discussed in phone call: "No prompt is required if it may be determined that an attempt at deletion shall always fail, such as removing a parent directory when one of the child files was skipped over." or similar language. I think the gist should be if it's possible the delete can succeed when Step 2d. reached the prompt is required, otherwise it may be skipped. Something about if Step 2b and 2d are combined because dir is empty the prompt shall reflect this would be useful as well, applied to Step 2b. e,g, "Dir not empty, recurse into?" or "Dir is empty, delete?" being explicit there, to cover expectations for how coreutils does it. Suggest adding to Step 2b.: "If the response is affirmative and file is a subdirectory with zero file count, an implementation may indicate this in the prompt and and skip to Step 4." Additionally, so it isn't left as ambiguous, adding after that: "When file is a subdirectory with zero file count and not marked read only, it is (unspecified/implementation-defined) whether an attempt to determine the file count shall cause a change in any time stamp maintained for that file." |
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As per Eric's note 0000802:0002123, the BSD behaviour should be considered a bug. I think the only acceptable optimization is to skip the prompt in 2b if the directory is empty. I suggest inserting the following text at the start of step 2b (page 3161 line 105682): If file is an empty directory, rm may skip to step 2d. |
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Interpretation response ------------------------ The standard states the requirements for prompting by rm, and conforming implementations must conform to this. However, concerns have been raised about this which are being referred to the sponsor. Rationale: ------------- The standard does not allow an optimization that is currently in use. Notes to the Editor (not part of this interpretation): ------------------------------------------------------- Insert the following text at the start of step 2b (page 3161 line 105682): If file is an empty directory, rm may skip to step 2d. |
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Interpretation proposed: 1 April 2014 |
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Interpretation approved May 1 2014 |
| Date Modified | Username | Field | Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2014-02-06 17:23 | rhansen | New Issue | |
| 2014-02-06 17:23 | rhansen | Name | => Richard Hansen |
| 2014-02-06 17:23 | rhansen | Organization | => BBN |
| 2014-02-06 17:23 | rhansen | Section | => rm |
| 2014-02-06 17:23 | rhansen | Page Number | => 3161 |
| 2014-02-06 17:23 | rhansen | Line Number | => 105682-105693 |
| 2014-02-06 17:32 | eblake | Relationship added | related to 0000802 |
| 2014-02-06 20:17 | eblake | Note Added: 0002128 | |
| 2014-02-06 21:41 | eblake | Note Added: 0002129 | |
| 2014-02-06 21:51 | shware_systems | Note Added: 0002130 | |
| 2014-02-07 09:57 | geoffclare | Note Added: 0002132 | |
| 2014-03-20 15:14 | geoffclare | Interp Status | => Pending |
| 2014-03-20 15:14 | geoffclare | Note Added: 0002187 | |
| 2014-03-20 15:14 | geoffclare | Status | New => Interpretation Required |
| 2014-03-20 15:14 | geoffclare | Resolution | Open => Accepted As Marked |
| 2014-03-20 15:15 | geoffclare | Note Edited: 0002187 | |
| 2014-03-20 15:15 | geoffclare | Tag Attached: tc2-2008 | |
| 2014-03-20 15:16 | geoffclare | Final Accepted Text | => 0000819:0002187 |
| 2014-04-01 13:33 | ajosey | Interp Status | Pending => Proposed |
| 2014-04-01 13:33 | ajosey | Note Added: 0002212 | |
| 2014-05-01 10:54 | ajosey | Interp Status | Proposed => Approved |
| 2014-05-01 10:54 | ajosey | Note Added: 0002237 | |
| 2019-06-10 08:54 | agadmin | Status | Interpretation Required => Closed |
