Difference between rm -rf o and rm -rf .o

Question

I'm wondering if the two commands (1) rm -rf *o and (2) rm -rf *.o give the same result: both delete the object files.

Moreover why the above commands delete the executable files as well?

The first command will remove any files that end with o and the second will delete all files ending with a dot and then o. — Raman Sailopal, Jan 03 '21 at 15:33

phihag · Answer 1 · 2021-01-03T17:21:03.660

3

* is a shell pattern matching anything except for hidden files.

rm -rf *o will thus also delete a file called hello or test.iso, whereas rm -rf *.o will only delete files ending in .o.

By the way, -r means recursive, i.e. will delete directories too. It should not be present here. You want rm -f *.o.

edited Jan 03 '21 at 17:21

answered Jan 03 '21 at 15:34

phihag

your reply is very helpful – Gennaro Arguzzi Jan 03 '21 at 15:38
And you probably don't want `-f` either. – glenn jackman Jan 03 '21 at 16:25
1

`* is a shell pattern matching anything.` - anything except for hidden files – Arkadiusz Drabczyk Jan 03 '21 at 16:34
@glennjackman `-f` is typical in a clean script, as it makes it idempotent. `rm *.o` fails noisily if nothing has been compiled or clean has just been executed. – phihag Jan 03 '21 at 17:22

score 1 · Answer 2 · answered Jan 03 '21 at 15:32

I'm wondering if the two commands (1) rm -rf *o and (2) rm -rf *.o give the same result: both delete the object files.

No, they don't give the same result:

Deletes all files that end with o as well as all directories that end with o.
Deletes all files that end with .o as well as all directories that end with .o.

Moreover why the above commands delete the executable files as well?

Probably because they end with o (1) or .o (2).

Difference between rm -rf *o and rm -rf *.o