Simple rm command on console

[Meternagel]

Hi Guys

While programming java sometimes files with following type of name are built:

#filename#

The command

rm -rf #*

fails to delete them, while

rm -rf *#

is successful.
Why is this the case? Has someone an idea?

Thanks for your help!

[Irithori]

# is interpreted by the shell as "here starts a comment"

Hence rm -rf #* is actually the same as rm -rf
It you wouldnt use -f, rm would complain about a missing operand.

In the same way, rm -rf *# boils down to rm -rf *
Which is potentially dangerous, as it matches any file and directory.

You can use quotes, doublequotes or the inode numbers to remove these files.

[Meternagel]

Thank you.

In the same way, rm -rf *# boils down to rm -rf *
Which is potentially dangerous, as it matches any file and directory.

This actually never happened. There were always files of type filename.java in the same directory, which never were erased.

[cnamejj]

What Irithori said... You have to mask the naked "#" somehow. One trick I've used (in addition to the suggestion to use single quotes or "\" escape characters) to help deal with files with odd characters (sometimes binary garbage) in name is to pre-pend "./" to the filename. So you can try: rm ./#file and it will work. That helps with annoying cases like filenames that start with "-" as well.

[Irithori]

There were always files of type filename.java in the same directory, which never were erased.

Are you sure?
rm -rf * WILL match any file and directory.
If they didnt get removed, then they are maybe protected by a different uid.
Or the files get copied back somehow.

@cnamejj: For the sake of completeness, there is also the -- syntax.
rm -f -- -foo

[Irithori]

Correction:
rm -rf *# is not the same as rm -rf *

Interesting, one learns something new each day