Git repos have lots of write protected files in the .git directory, sometimes hundreds, and the default rm my_project_managed_by_git will prompt before deleting each write protected file. So, to actually delete my project I have to do rm -rf my_project_managed_by_git.

Using rm -rf scares me. Is there a reasonable way to delete git repos without it?

  • ssm@lemmy.sdf.org
    0·
    23 days ago

    use relative paths (cd into the directory below your repository) and use tab completion, and you won’t have problems.

  • davel@lemmy.ml
    English
    0·
    25 days ago

    I’ve shot myself in the foot enough times over the years with rm -rf. Now I use trash-cli. I don’t know what package manager(s) you use, but I install it via Homebrew.

    • Buttons@programming.devOPEnglish
      0·
      25 days ago

      That’s a good suggestion for some, but I’m quite comfortable with the command line.

      It’s not that I’m irrationally scared of rm -rf. I know what that command will do. If I slow down an pay attention it’s not as though I’m worried “I hope this doesn’t break my system”.

      What I really mean is I see myself becoming quite comfortable typing rm -rf and running it with little thought, I use it often to delete git repos, and my frequent use and level of comfort with this command doesn’t match the level of danger it brings.

      Just moving them to /tmp is a nice suggestion that can work on anywhere without special programs or scripts.

        • Buttons@programming.devOPEnglish
          0·
          24 days ago

          Just checked my command history and I’ve run 60,000 commands on this computer without problem (and I have other computers). I guess people have different ideas of what “comfortable” means, but I think I consider myself comfortable with the command line.

          I have shot myself in the foot with rm -rf in the past though, and screwed up my computer so bad the easiest solution was to reinstall the OS from scratch. My important files are backed up, including most of my dotfiles, but being a bit too quick to type and run a rm -rf command has caused me needless hours of work in the past.

          I realized the main reason I have to use rm -rf is to remove git repos and so I thought I’d ask if anyone has a tip to avoid it. And I’ve found some good suggestions among the least upvoted comments.

          • t_378@lemmy.one
            0·
            24 days ago

            I’m the same as you! I recommend “trash-cli”, then you can undo if you mess something up. You can even set an alias to echo “wrong command” if you use ‘RM’.

      • somethingsomethingidk@lemmy.world
        0·
        24 days ago

        If you’re making backups of things you care about and not running sudo rm -rf the command isn’t really dangerous.

        But +1 for having it in /tmp I have a bash function I call tempd that is basically cd $(mktemp -d) I use it so much for stuff I dont really care to keep.

        • dave@hal9000@lemmy.world
          0·
          24 days ago

          Never heard of mktemp before, that’s need. Come to think of it I never thought about how /tmp is really used by the system in the first place, time to do do studying I guess

  • treadful@lemmy.zipEnglish
    0·
    25 days ago

    Using rm -rf scares me. Is there a reasonable way to delete git repos without it?

    I don’t know what to tell you, that’s the command you need to use.

    If you’re that worried you’re going to nuke important stuff, make backups, and don’t use sudo for user files.

  • friend_of_satan@lemmy.worldEnglish
    0·
    25 days ago

    If you’re scared to do rm -rf, do something else that lets you inspect the entire batch of deletions first. Such as:

    find .git ! -type d -print0 | xargs -0 -n1 echo rm -fv

    This will print out all the rm -fv commands that would be run. Once you’ve verifid that that’s what you want to do, run it again without echo to do the actual deletion. If you’re scared of having that in your history, either use a full path for .git, or prepend a space to the non-echo version of the command to make it avoid showing up in your shell history (assuming you have ignorespace in your HISTCONTROL env var)

  • bloodfart@lemmy.ml
    0·
    24 days ago

    Cd into the directory first, then run rm -rf, then cd back out and rm -r just the directory.

  • Kekin@lemy.lol
    0·
    24 days ago

    A tip I saw some time ago is to do:

    rm folder -rf

    Additionally you could move the git folder to the trash folder. I think it’s usually located at $HOME/.local/share/trash/files/

    Then you can delete it from the trash once you’re certain you got the right folder

    • d_k_bo@feddit.de
      0·
      24 days ago

      Additionally you could move the git folder to the trash folder. I think it’s usually located at $HOME/.local/share/trash/files/

      Moving something to the trash files folder isn’t the correct way to trash it, since the Trash specification requires storing some metadata for each trash item.

      You should use eg. trash-cli instead.

  • gomp@lemmy.ml
    0·
    24 days ago

    The problem is that rm -rf shouldn’t scare you?

    What are the chances something like

    ~/projects/some-project $ cd ..
~/projects $ rm -fr some-project

    may delete unexpected stuff? (especially if you get into the habit of tab-completing the directory argument)

  • flux@lemmy.ml
    0·
    24 days ago

    You should have backups. Preferably also snapshots. Then rm will feel less scary.

  • krnl386@lemmy.ca
    0·
    24 days ago

    If you’re that worried, why not run chmod -R u+w .git inside the project dir to “un write-protect” the files, then just ascend to the directory containing the project dir (cd …) and use rm -r without -f?

    The force flag (-f) is the scary one, I presume?