Re: "git rm" seems to do recursive removal even without "-r"

From: Todd Zullinger <tmz@pobox.com>
Date: Oct 7, 2017, 19:04 UTC
Message-ID: <20171007190402.GH3382@zaya.teonanacatl.net>
In-Reply-To: <alpine.LFD.2.21.1710071436140.14843@localhost.localdomain>

Robert P. J. Day wrote:

Show 16 quoted lines

>
>  was just testing variations of "git rm", and man page claims:
>
>  -r 
>     Allow recursive removal when a leading directory name is given.
>
> i tested this on the "pro git" book repo, which contains a top-level 
> "book/" directory, and quite a number of "*.asc" files in various 
> subdirectories one or more levels down. i ran:
>
>  $ git rm book/\*.asc
>
> and it certainly seemed to delete *all* "*.asc" files no matter where 
> they were under book/, even without the "-r" option.
>
>  am i misunderstanding something?

By shell-escaping the *, you're letting git perform the file glob. The DISCUSSION section of git-rm(1) says "File globbing matches across directory boundaries."

# With bash performing file globbing $ git rm -n Documentation/*.txt | wc -l 199

# With git performing file globbing $ git rm -n Documentation/\*.txt | wc -l 578

-- 
Todd
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Whenever you find yourself on the side of the majority, it is time to
pause and reflect.
    -- Mark Twain