English Idiom in Unix: Directory Recursively

[Hans Georg Schaathun]

["Followup-To:" header set to comp.lang.python.]
On Wed, 18 May 2011 13:00:01 -0700 (PDT), Xah Lee
  <xahlee at gmail.com> wrote:
:  Mike Barnes <mikebar... at bluebottle.com> wrote:
: > I find all this somewhat arcane. Questioning the precise suitability of
: > the word "recursive" seems like a quibble.
: 
:  that's good point. I think what happens is that the “recursive” has
:  become a idiom associated with directory to such a degree that the
:  unix people don't know what the fuck they are talking about. They just
:  simply use the word to go with directory whever they mean the whole
:  directory.

I totally agree that the motivation for the use of the word is
arcane.  We are many who understand and /need/ to understand 
arcane aspects of the system.

However, the word «recursive» is not automatically associated 
with discussion of directories.  Listing a directory, and 
listing a directory recursively, are two different operations.
Both are useful and important, and the distinction is necessary.

:  In the emacs case: “Recursive delete of xx? (y or n) ”, what could it
:  possibly mean by the word “recursive” there? Like, it might delete the
:  directory but not delete all files in it?

Yes you /might/ do exactly that.  You just probably don't want to.
I agree that the question could be rephrased in a more userfriendly
manner, but OTOH, if you find the usage arcane, you probably don't
have any benefit from using emacs over less arcane editors either.

:  also, in the rsync case: “This would recursively transfer all files
:  from the directory … ”, what does the word “recursively” mean there?

Exactly the same as it does in «listing the directory recursively»
or «deleting the directory recursively».

Again the distinction could be useful.  A non-recursive «rsync dir1
dir2» probably isn't useful, but «rsync * dir2» might be.

-- 
:-- Hans Georg