mathjax / mathjax/MathJax

Move documentation instances of recommanded usage of dangerous command line commands to less dangerous ones.

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#3,314 3 comments 0 reactions 1 assignee View on GitHub

@dpvc is already working on this.

Since Aug 14, 2025.

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Description

The unix-like shell commands mv, cp amd rm are dangerous in the sense that if you use them on data you don't intend to loose you might loose that very same data.

My idea: move all documentation uses of mv ... to mv -i ..., all uses of cp ... to cp -i ... and all uses of rm [-rf] ... to rm -i [-rf] ... or even better trash-put .... The commands with the -i option are interactive in the sense that the user is explicitally asked before overwriting or deleting anything. The last command trash-put is better in the sense that it moves the data to the temporary trash folder instead of instantly deleting it. trash-put is supplied as a python package in many Linux distributions.

The dangerous command are everywhere in the documentation. I believe they should be replaced with their non-dangerouse counterparts.

Just my 2 cents. Thank you for reading.

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