rm -r .git
rm -r .git --force
I get the following and there seems to be a never ending supply after I enter 'yes' and move to the next.
override r--r--r-- redacted/staff for .git/objects/95/90087aa4b351e278e6e53ff6240045ab2db6d1?
Analysis and explanation:
The message override r--r--r-- ...? is seen in some versions of the rm command when you try to delete a file or files with the rm command that have write access removed.
To reproduce:
▶ mkdir -p foo/{bar,baz} ; touch foo/bar/qux
▶ chmod -R -w foo
▶ find foo -ls
4305147410 0 dr-xr-xr-x 4 alexharvey wheel 128 24 Mar 18:19 foo
4305147412 0 dr-xr-xr-x 2 alexharvey wheel 64 24 Mar 18:19 foo/baz
4305147411 0 dr-xr-xr-x 3 alexharvey wheel 96 24 Mar 18:19 foo/bar
4305147413 0 -r--r--r-- 1 alexharvey wheel 0 24 Mar 18:19 foo/bar/qux
Now if you try to delete these files you'll be asked if you really want to override this file mode:
▶ rm -r foo
override r-xr-xr-x alexharvey/wheel for foo/baz?
Note also that if you are on Mac OS X or other BSD variant, as appears to be the case, then you have specified the --force argument incorrectly by adding it to the end of the command line, where it will be interpreted as the name of an additional file to delete.
But even if I correct that, -f still can't override r--r--r--. Instead, you would see this:
▶ rm -rf foo
rm: foo/baz: Permission denied
rm: foo/bar/qux: Permission denied
rm: foo/bar: Permission denied
rm: foo: Directory not empty
The fix:
To fix this, firstly restore the write permission within the folder:
▶ chmod -R +w foo
Then rm -r should work fine:
▶ rm -r foo
▶ ls foo
ls: foo: No such file or directory
See also: