English Idiom in Unix: Directory Recursively

[Mike Barnes]

Xah Lee <xahlee at gmail.com>:
>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?

My understanding is that non-recursive means, I think there are no (non-
empty?) subdirectories, or I haven't given the matter any thought, so if
there are any such subdirectories, tell me and don't do anything.
Recursive means I want everything deleted regardless. BICBW.

-- 
Mike Barnes
Cheshire, England