uutils
rm: shouldn't prompt when stdin is not interactive
Environment: Ubuntu 24.04, uutils main branch (git commit a2af5d60b5769717a4f40592e10aa6653533328f), GNU coreutils v9.6.19-7386c-modified
Steps to reproduce:
mkdir -m0 dir
rm -d dir < /dev/null
What happens now: uutils rm prints the interactive prompt but immediately terminates, and leaves the directory as-is:
rm: attempt removal of inaccessible directory 'inacc2'?
What I expected to happen: GNU rm prints nothing and removes the directory silently.
Notes: this is causing a failure in GNU test file tests/rm/empty-inacc.sh. I guess the logic here is that if stdin is not an interactive terminal, then the prompting is disabled? I'm not sure.
The current remove_dir function in in src/uu/rm/src/rm.rs calls prompt_dir to decide whether to proceed with removal. Problem is it does not check if stdin is a terminal, so it attempts to prompt even when stdin is /dev/null, leading to immediate termination without removal. To fix this do:
- Add a check using
atty::is(Stream::Stdin)to detect if stdin is a terminal. - Skip prompting and proceed with removal when stdin is not a terminal, matching GNU rm’s behavior. Here’s the fully rewritten remove_dir function with the fix - (I made the change in here):
/// Remove the given directory, asking the user for permission if necessary.
///
/// Returns true if it has encountered an error.
fn remove_dir(path: &Path, options: &Options) -> bool {
// Skip prompting if stdin is not a terminal (e.g., redirected from /dev/null)
if !atty::is(atty::Stream::Stdin) {
match fs::remove_dir(path) {
Ok(_) => {
if options.verbose {
println!("removed directory {}", normalize(path).quote());
}
return false;
}
Err(e) => {
let e = e.map_err_context(|| format!("cannot remove {}", path.quote()));
show_error!("{e}");
return true;
}
}
}
// Ask the user for permission if stdin is a terminal
if !prompt_dir(path, options) {
return false;
}
// Called to remove a symlink_dir (windows) without "-r"/"-R" or "-d".
if !options.dir && !options.recursive {
show_error!("cannot remove {}: Is a directory", path.quote());
return true;
}
// Try to remove the directory.
match fs::remove_dir(path) {
Ok(_) => {
if options.verbose {
println!("removed directory {}", normalize(path).quote());
}
false
}
Err(e) => {
let e = e.map_err_context(|| format!("cannot remove {}", path.quote()));
show_error!("{e}");
true
}
}
}
PR #7492 has been opened to silently proceed through prompts when stdin is not an interactive terminal
