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Asked: 2017-12-02 04:30:50 +0800 CST

"rm" command defaults "--preserve-root" option?

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They say rm command defaults to the option --preserve-root. Is that right?

Otherwise I should put the line

alias rm='rm --preserve-root'`

in ~/.bashrc to make that option happen without typing it every time I run the rm command. To confirm this I ran type rm, and got rm is hashed (/bin/rm).

I expected rm is aliased to rm --preserve-root. Does anyone know what's going on with the rm command?

rm

1 Answers

  1. Best Answer

    rm is not being aliased to rm --preserve-root, but the option is selected by default in the rm binary.

    From the manpage of rm in Ubuntu 17.10, you can find the following details of the --preserve-root and --no-preserve-root options:

       --no-preserve-root
          do not treat '/' specially

   --preserve-root
          do not remove '/' (default)
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