Re: Suppressing failed glob patterns

["Benjamin R. Haskell" <zsh@xxxxxxxxxx>]

On Thu, 4 Dec 2008, Thorsten Kampe wrote:

> Yes, I know about that. And that's what I've been using until now. But 
> it's also exactly what I not what. I don't what to give the command an 
> empty pattern. Compare:
>
> % rm non-existing-file.*
> zsh: no matches found: non-existing-file.*
>
> % rm non-existing-file.*(N)
> rm: missing operand
> Try `rm --help' for more information.
>
> I just want rm not to be executed (like it's the default) but without
> the error (which is fine when I do it interactively but not in a
> script).
>
> Thorsten


You want both of the things suggested in this thread ('-f' and '(N)'):

# original problem
$ rm non-existing-file.*
zsh: no matches found: non-existing-file.*

# '-f' doesn't solve 'no matches'
$ rm -f non-existing-file.*
zsh: no matches found: non-existing-file.*

# '(N)' doesn't solve the 'missing operand'
$ rm non-existing-file.*(N)
rm: missing operand
Try `rm --help' for more information.

# '(N)' solves one, '-f' solves the other
$ rm -f non-existing-file.*(N)
$


Best,
Ben