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Full Discussion: How to prevent Accidents 'rm -rf *'?
Top Forums UNIX for Advanced & Expert Users How to prevent Accidents 'rm -rf *'? Post 302904223 by Don Cragun on Tuesday 3rd of June 2014 02:29:08 AM
Old 06-03-2014
Let me see if I understand what you're doing. You have a script that is given an operand that is the name of the directory to be removed. You expect it to be invoked with something like:
Code:
removeall drectory

and you have written removeall to be:
Code:
#!/bin/YourShellName
rm -rf "$1"/*

And, if the person who invokes removeall forgets to give an operand, bad things happen.

So, why did your script add /*??? If the script had been:
Code:
#!/bin/YourShellName
rm -rf "$1"

you would get the same results when a directory operand is given, but you wouldn't have a problem when no operand is given (rm would just print a diagnostic saying no operands were given or an empty string is not a valid pathname).

Or your script could actually check for missing or "invalid" operands:
Code:
#!/bin/YourShellName
IAm=${0##*/}
if [ $# -ne 1 ] || [ ! -d "$1" ]
then    printf "Usage: %s directory\n" "$IAm" >&2
        exit 1
fi
rm -rf "$1"

UNIX utilities are there to help you get a job done. If you use them correctly, they can do wonderful things for you. If you tell them to do stupid things, you'll get what you asked for.
 

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LEARN ABOUT CENTOS

locale::codes::script

Locale::Codes::Script(3)				User Contributed Perl Documentation				  Locale::Codes::Script(3)

NAME

       Locale::Codes::Script - standard codes for script identification

SYNOPSIS

	  use Locale::Codes::Script;

	  $script  = code2script('phnx');		      # 'Phoenician'
	  $code    = script2code('Phoenician'); 	      # 'Phnx'
	  $code    = script2code('Phoenician',
				 LOCALE_CODE_NUMERIC);	      # 115

	  @codes   = all_script_codes();
	  @scripts = all_script_names();

DESCRIPTION

       The "Locale::Codes::Script" module provides access to standards codes used for identifying scripts, such as those defined in ISO 15924.

       Most of the routines take an optional additional argument which specifies the code set to use. If not specified, the default ISO 15924
       four-letter codes will be used.

SUPPORTED CODE SETS

       There are several different code sets you can use for identifying scripts. A code set may be specified using either a name, or a constant
       that is automatically exported by this module.

       For example, the two are equivalent:

	  $script = code2script('phnx','alpha');
	  $script = code2script('phnx',LOCALE_SCRIPT_ALPHA);

       The codesets currently supported are:

       alpha, LOCALE_SCRIPT_ALPHA
	   This is a set of four-letter (capitalized) codes from ISO 15924 such as 'Phnx' for Phoenician.  It also includes additions to this set
	   included in the IANA language registry.

	   The Zxxx, Zyyy, and Zzzz codes are not used.

	   This is the default code set.

       num, LOCALE_SCRIPT_NUMERIC
	   This is a set of three-digit numeric codes from ISO 15924 such as 115 for Phoenician.

ROUTINES

       code2script ( CODE [,CODESET] )
       script2code ( NAME [,CODESET] )
       script_code2code ( CODE ,CODESET ,CODESET2 )
       all_script_codes ( [CODESET] )
       all_script_names ( [CODESET] )
       Locale::Codes::Script::rename_script  ( CODE ,NEW_NAME [,CODESET] )
       Locale::Codes::Script::add_script  ( CODE ,NAME [,CODESET] )
       Locale::Codes::Script::delete_script  ( CODE [,CODESET] )
       Locale::Codes::Script::add_script_alias	( NAME ,NEW_NAME )
       Locale::Codes::Script::delete_script_alias  ( NAME )
       Locale::Codes::Script::rename_script_code  ( CODE ,NEW_CODE [,CODESET] )
       Locale::Codes::Script::add_script_code_alias  ( CODE ,NEW_CODE [,CODESET] )
       Locale::Codes::Script::delete_script_code_alias	( CODE [,CODESET] )
	   These routines are all documented in the Locale::Codes::API man page.

SEE ALSO

       Locale::Codes
	   The Locale-Codes distribution.

       Locale::Codes::API
	   The list of functions supported by this module.

       http://www.unicode.org/iso15924/
	   Home page for ISO 15924.

       http://www.iana.org/assignments/language-subtag-registry
	   The IANA language subtag registry.

AUTHOR

       See Locale::Codes for full author history.

       Currently maintained by Sullivan Beck (sbeck@cpan.org).

COPYRIGHT

	  Copyright (c) 1997-2001 Canon Research Centre Europe (CRE).
	  Copyright (c) 2001-2010 Neil Bowers
	  Copyright (c) 2010-2013 Sullivan Beck

       This module is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the same terms as Perl itself.

perl v5.16.3							    2013-02-27						  Locale::Codes::Script(3)
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