Long answer: It is part of a command that deletes everything. The only thing missing is the argument specifying what to delete. Examples:
rm -rf *
rm -rf /some/directory
It’s somewhat (in)famous because it’ll do so without asking for confirmation. The only exception is rm -rf / on a modern distro which will complain that you’re attempting to delete EVERYTHING on the system. In the olden days it’d just do it, but these days it tells you to add --no-preserve-root as well if you really wish to do so.
Short answer: Nothing
Long answer: It is part of a command that deletes everything. The only thing missing is the argument specifying what to delete. Examples:
rm -rf * rm -rf /some/directoryIt’s somewhat (in)famous because it’ll do so without asking for confirmation. The only exception is
rm -rf /on a modern distro which will complain that you’re attempting to delete EVERYTHING on the system. In the olden days it’d just do it, but these days it tells you to add--no-preserve-rootas well if you really wish to do so.