[Info-vax] The (now lost) future of Alpha.

[Bill Gunshannon]

On 08/28/2018 05:36 PM, Arne Vajhøj wrote:
> On 8/28/2018 5:07 PM, Phillip Helbig (undress to reply) wrote:
>> In article <2689a237-86cc-4686-b981-d461ea3ab40c at googlegroups.com>, John
>> Reagan <xyzzy1959 at gmail.com> writes:
>>> You need the /TREE qualifier for DELETE to match the behavior.
>>> (Personally. , it should have been /RECURSIVE and not /TREE but nobody
>>> asked me)
>>
>> Actually, "recursive" is a misnomer here.  Recursive behaviour is when
>> something calls itself.  That isn't the same as [...].
> 
> It sort of is.
> 
> You do something for all files in current dir and you recursively
> do the same for all subdirs.
> 
> Arne
> 

I had to think about this.  I can see both arguments, but I think
recursive wins.

Think about it this way.  You can't delete a top directory
that contains files and other directories so you have to
move to the bottom of each branch of that tree and then
recurse back up deleting entries as you go and as each
branch becomes empty you get to delete it as well.

Unless, of course, your on a Primos system where someone
wrote a little ditty to recursively create sub-directories.
Then, after he reached a certain point the only way to
fix the problem is to reformat the disk and hope you had
a good backup.  :-)

bill