Subject: Re: Larger rm Change
To: Emmanuel Dreyfus <manu@netbsd.org>
From: Andrew Brown <atatat@atatdot.net>
List: tech-userlevel
Date: 01/09/2003 14:53:40
>> root isn't prevented from deleting the user's files, but is simply
>> required to take an extra step to delete them.  in the case of
>> unattended deletion (eg tmp clean up), rm could be preceded by a call
>> to chflags -RP.  just about all other instance of root deleting trees
>> of files where a user may have set a flag like this are going to be
>> manual.
>
>I understood your position, but I think introducing this oddity on
>NetBSD is bad. Think about the person administering many OSes. "Why on
>earth does rm -Rf does not work for that directory on NetBSD?"

it's not an oddity in netbsd.  it's an oddity in freebsd.  currently:

	the use of flags on netbsd causes rm to fail
	the use of flags on openbsd causes rm to fail
	the use of flags on bsdi causes rm to fail
	the use of flags on macosx causes rm to fail
	the use of flags on freebsd DOES NOT cause rm to fail

perhaps the error that rm prints in such a case should give a hint as
to the *why* of the failure, but removing files when flags have been
set specifically to avoid such an event is, imho, wrong.

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