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dsavinkov

this is the reason why I always use quotes before specifying folders with rf -rf :)

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I always type

ls /stuff/wherever/*

Then examine the output to see if that is the stuff I really want to delete and if it is,

up-arrow Ctrl-A right right backspace backspace rm -rf enter

Never deleted the wrong stuff again in 30 years of doing that

Something else that is really useful in these situations (in bash at least) is alt-* (alt-shift-8). It will expand a directory or glob into all effected top level files/directories.

For example, it will expand `ls *` to `ls foo bar baz`, etc

I always cd to the parent directory, ls with tab complete to check, the rm with the same tab complete.

Great tip, thanks!

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