Description of problem: Version-Release number of selected component (if applicable): coreutils-5.97-14.el5 How reproducible: very Steps to Reproduce: 1. mkdir /tmp/abc 2. rm -d /tmp/abc 3. output complains it's a directory but man page says rm -d should remove a directory. Actual results: rm: cannot remove `abc': Is a directory Expected results: dir should be removed. also tried as root, same problem. Additional info:
Thanks for report. Now the option -d is deprecated in upstream coreutils - with comment: /* Ignore this option, for backward compatibility with coreutils 5.92. FIXME: Some time after 2005, change this to report an error (or perhaps behave like FreeBSD does) instead of ignoring the option. */ This option seems to be not working at all in RHEL-4/RHEL-5 coreutils, as it only activates boolean which is unused in the sourcecode. Activation boolean was removed from remove.c by http://git.savannah.gnu.org/gitweb/?p=coreutils.git;a=commitdiff;h=fb205872c1038139e118022014db0d6d817c34ec in June 2002, coreutils-5.2.1 (RHEL-4) are releasad in March 2004. You should use -rf for removing non-empty directories, the best solution for that bugzilla would be to remove that confusing option from the help, man and info page as it is noop.
Since it's the first option in the man page, removing it from future versions would be a great help. I am servicing end users from another operating system and they were using the man pages heavily so they didn't read past the first option for removing a directory to see rm -rf. Thanks.
An advisory has been issued which should help the problem described in this bug report. This report is therefore being closed with a resolution of ERRATA. For more information on therefore solution and/or where to find the updated files, please follow the link below. You may reopen this bug report if the solution does not work for you. http://rhn.redhat.com/errata/RHBA-2009-1262.html