delete non-empty directory in vim - vim

Vim users would be familiar with getting into and viewing the current directory listing by using
:o .
In this directory view, we are able to give additional commands like d and vim will respond with "Please give directory name:". This of course allows us to create a new directory in the current directory once we provide a directory name to vim.
Similarly, we can delete an empty directory by first moving our cursor down to the listing that underlines the specific directory we want to remove and typing D.
The problem is, vim does not allow us to delete a non-empty directory.
Is that any way to insist that we delete the non-empty directory?

The directory view you're referring to is called netrw. You could read up on its entire documentation with :help netrw, but what you're looking for in this case is accessible by :help netrw-delete:
The g:netrw_rmdir_cmd variable is used to support the removal of directories.
Its default value is:
g:netrw_rmdir_cmd: ssh HOSTNAME rmdir
If removing a directory fails with g:netrw_rmdir_cmd, netrw then will attempt
to remove it again using the g:netrw_rmf_cmd variable. Its default value is:
g:netrw_rmf_cmd: ssh HOSTNAME rm -f
So, you could override the variable that contains the command to remove a directory like so:
let g:netrw_rmf_cmd = 'ssh HOSTNAME rm -rf'
EDIT: Like sehe pointed out, this is fairly risky. If you need additional confirmation in case the directory is not empty, you could write a shell script that does the prompting. A quick google turned up this SO question: bash user input if.
So, you could write a script that goes like this:
#! /bin/bash
hostname = $1
dirname = $2
# ...
# prompt the user, save the result
# ...
if $yes
then
ssh $hostname rm -rf $dirname
fi
Then, set the command to execute your script
let g:netrw_rmf_cmd = 'safe-delete HOSTNAME'
A lot of careful testing is recommended, of course :).

Andrew's answer doesn't work for me. I have found another way to this question. Try :help netrw_localrmdir.
Settings from my .vimrc file:
let g:netrw_localrmdir="rm -r"

Related

Create executable file for comand line Linux

When ever I log into Linux I usually go straight to the same folder i was wondering if in stead of typing in:
$cd Document/..../..../..../..../....
I could create an executable so I could just type ./csFolder and it would go straight there.
You can add a shell function in your .bashrc and restart your terminal:
csf() {
cd Document/..../..../..../..../....
}
Whenever you want to go to that directory, you just run csf.
Yo can do a symlink
ln -s /path/to/file /path/to/symlink
In addition to the other options (though if you use the function/alias option you want to use an absolute path to the target directory so it works from wherever you happen to be) you can use the environment variable CDPATH to help with this if you have a location you often go to from various other locations.
From the POSIX specification:
CDPATH
A -separated list of pathnames that refer to directories. The cd utility shall use this list in its attempt to change the directory, as described in the DESCRIPTION. An empty string in place of a directory pathname represents the current directory. If CDPATH is not set, it shall be treated as if it were an empty string.
Which means that if you set CDPATH to the parent of your target directory you can just use cd dirname from anywhere and go directly to the directory you wanted to be in.

Assign directory to variable in a source file

I am building a source file with some alias to executable files (these are working just fine) and assigning directories to variables in order to get to the directory quicker, with less typing. For example, if I source example.source:
#!/usr/bin/bash
mydir="/path/to/some/dir"
I can get to /path/to/some/dir with
cd $mydir
However, I am not being able to use tab complete to navigate through other sub-directories like I would do by typing the complete path. I mean, if I use the tab key to complete the variable I get cd $mydir but not cd $mydir/ (I have to delete the last space character and manually type the slash / to see the next sub-directories). Hope this is an understandable question. Is there any workaround for this?
EDIT: the linux distribution I'm using is Slackware Linux 3.2.31.c x86_64 GenuineIntel GNU/Linux
EDIT2: GNU bash, version 4.2.37(2)-release
Apparently this feature is starting to be implemented in bash 4.3, release 26-Feb-2014 09:25.
Reading the NEWS file in bash 4.3 I found this:
i. The word completion code checks whether or not a filename
containing a
shell variable expands to a directory name and appends `/' to the word
as appropriate. The same code expands shell variables in command names
when performing command completion.
Unfortunately I cannot do a de novo installation of bash (because I'm working on a server) but I hope this can help others.
If I understand your question, then I believe it can be solved by putting this at the top of your example.source. This will list your contents every-time that you cd.
#!/usr/bin/bash
# Make cd change directories and then list the contents
function cd() {
builtin cd $*;
ls;
}
mydir="/path/to/some/dir"
cd $mydir
My other suggestion is to try to put cd within your alias. Something like this:
mydir="cd /path/to/some/dir"
$mydir

shell script : appending directory path and filename

I want to copy a file from a directory using shell script
Suppose I save the directory and file name seperately as
dir=/home/user/directory/
file=file_1
to copy the file Im using this command in my script
cp $dir$file .
But I get this error
/bin/cp omitting directory '/home/user/directory'
I have tried all combination eg. omitted the trail backslah from variable dir, etc but nothings working. I cant understand what is wrong with this code. Pleas help
Maybe the command $dir$file is not getting unpacked in the shell (ie only the directory variable is getting unpacked, not the file variable)!!!!!
It looks like you are having problem with expansion in cp $dir$file . In order to prevent possible problems, it is better to protect your variable with braces and double quote the full path/file to make sure you don't get caught by spaces in either the filename or heaven forbid the user's dirname:
cp "${dir}${file}" .
This will prevent the possibility the second $ is missed. Also make sure you have read access to other users /home (if you are root or using sudo you should be fine)
If you see this, when you somehow assign an empty string to file somewhere. Search your script for file= and unset file.
You can also debug this by adding
echo ".${file}."
in the line before the cp command. I'm pretty sure it prints .., i.e. the variable is empty or doesn't exist.

Bash tab completion like ncftp?

In ncftp tab completion only shows the differences of matched files. E.g. with the following files
file123 file125 aa
then typing ls fil will first complete to ls file12 and show
3 5
Question
Can the same be done in Bash?
BASH supports tab-completion which is fairly robust. It is implemented through bash_completion. However, be aware that the way bash_completion is configured will depend on what options are set by default by your distribution. As for its basic functionality, it is exactly as you describe for ncftp. When a partial name is entered on the command line and tab is pressed, then a list of name-matched files are displayed. Once you have entered enough characters to make the name unique, tab will complete entry of the unique filename on the command line.
Linux also provides ls, but its behavior is not the same as you describe for ncftp. ls will return the names of files and directories that match the pattern you specified. By default, the name you provide to ls is not expanded. Meaning if you have file123 and file125 in a directory and issue the command ls file, you will be greeted by the error ls: cannot access bash: No such file or directory. But providing a wildcard (filename globbing) with ls file* will return both names.
If you have additional specific questions. Just leave a comment and we will do our best to help.

can not open .cshrc after modifying

I am on a RedHat csh.
I just modified ~/.cshrc with a wrong path and resulting in an syntax-error.
my shell just not recognize ls or gedit. So, when I again try to modify, it is not again opening with gedit ~/.cshrc.
When I boot the system it is not starting the profile.
I Have the root access and root profile is fine. Can I edit it from root.
Please help me to remove last two lines i have added to /.cshrc, using root-profile so that it works normal as previous.
thanks.
I'm guessing your PATH isn't getting set properly due to the syntax-error in your .cshrc (assumption since you mention ls isn't working). Try the following from your shell:
echo $PATH
echo is a built-in and should always work. If it returns nothing, is empty, or doesn't include a list of paths similar to /bin, /usr/bin, etc ... then your path is indeed incorrect. Use the full path to gedit on the command line like:
/usr/bin/gedit ~/.cshrc

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