How can I make rm -rf ask for confirmation just once at the directory level?

Question

If I use rm -rfi, this asks me every time each file is deleted. If I have a list of rm -rf commands, how can I make it so that the machine asks me for confirmation just once (when trying to delete the directory itself)

Answer 1

With some rm implementations (DragonFly BSD where it comes from, FreeBSD and GNU at least), the -I (capital i) is what you are looking for. -i asks for confirmation for every file, while the -I (capital i) ask for confirmation once when files are more than 3 or you are deleting recursively.

Answer 2

zsh -c 'rm -f -- **/*(^/)'
rm -ri -- *

This will recursively (**/) remove everything (*) that isn't a directory (^/) with zsh; then use your existing shell to interactively remove what's left (directories). To include dotfiles in the initial removal, use:

zsh -c 'rm -f -- **/*(D^/)'

followed by:

rm -ri -- *

Answer 3

The snippet below will ask for confirmation once, then it will delete the entire directory 'path/to/delete'

1. Use read -p 'question ' answer to display the 'question ' to the user and store the answer in the variable ${answer}. (The trailing space in 'question ' makes the prompt more readable)
2. Use the test clause [ ] with the string equality = operator to ensure the variable ${answer} contains the 'expected answer'
3. Use the and operator && to stop if any of the steps does not succeed - e.g. [Ctrl]+[C] was used to interrupt the read or the test clause [ ] wasn't true
4. Before ever writing rm -rf - Think of at least 42 scenarios where things can go horribly wrong. Brainstorm ways to mitigate the risk as much as possible
5. When all of the conditions above are met, remove the directory forcibly with rm -rf

PATH_TO_DELETE='path/to/delete'
read -p "Delete path '${PATH_TO_DELETE}'? [y/N] " yn && [ "${yn}" = 'y' ] && rm -rf "${PATH_TO_DELETE}"

Answer 4

Try this, Well this could be a wild solution, but wanted to share anyway!

function rm_ {
   [[ -d "$1" ]] && rm -rI "$1" || rm -f "$1"
}

Then use rm_ <directory|file>. If its directory you get rm: remove all arguments recursively? , else nothing and the file would be deleted.

This way , there will be no prompt to user while deleting files, as well as the user gets a prompt while deleting a directory.

If only rm -rI were to be used , user gets confirmation prompt for both files and directories and so I used a combination of both rm -f and rm -rI.