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Full Discussion: rm $(filename)*
Top Forums Shell Programming and Scripting rm $(filename)* Post 302100421 by _Spare_Ribs_ on Tuesday 19th of December 2006 05:55:51 PM
Old 12-19-2006
Hi sakthi,

Straight forward one really. By using the ( ) brackets you imply that $filename is a command, when infact it is a variable. rm will complain that it's an invalid command and ignores it, thus executing rm -f *

As vgersh99 showed the correct format is to use the curly braces { }

Perhaps this advice comes a little too late but when ever I write scripts that contain any form of the rm command I always take a snapshot of my virtual machines. I know this might not be achievable for everyone but it's always worth doing this in a test environment first. Alternatively you could always use the -i argument in a test run of your script first as this will prompt before removing any files.

If it makes you feel any better I've pulled a few classic manouvers in my time including the following line in my code before:

Code:
rm -dfrv /* >> /$LOG

and yes I was logged in as root. What I meant to have in there was rm -dfrv * Smilie
 

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while(n)						       Tcl Built-In Commands							  while(n)

__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

NAME
while - Execute script repeatedly as long as a condition is met SYNOPSIS
while test body _________________________________________________________________ DESCRIPTION
The while command evaluates test as an expression (in the same way that expr evaluates its argument). The value of the expression must a proper boolean value; if it is a true value then body is executed by passing it to the Tcl interpreter. Once body has been executed then test is evaluated again, and the process repeats until eventually test evaluates to a false boolean value. Continue commands may be exe- cuted inside body to terminate the current iteration of the loop, and break commands may be executed inside body to cause immediate termi- nation of the while command. The while command always returns an empty string. Note: test should almost always be enclosed in braces. If not, variable substitutions will be made before the while command starts execut- ing, which means that variable changes made by the loop body will not be considered in the expression. This is likely to result in an infinite loop. If test is enclosed in braces, variable substitutions are delayed until the expression is evaluated (before each loop iter- ation), so changes in the variables will be visible. For an example, try the following script with and without the braces around $x<10: set x 0 while {$x<10} { puts "x is $x" incr x } SEE ALSO
break(n), continue(n), for(n), foreach(n) KEYWORDS
boolean value, loop, test, while Tcl while(n)
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