I appreciate the detailed response from Bob Proulx, but I do not think it addressed the question I raised. I had expected "rm -rf *.swp" to remove all the files listed by find, Mr Proulx informed me that it would have removed none of them, but in fact what it did was remove SOME of them.
~ $find /home -name *swp ................the original list delivered by find /home/g/.vim/config.swp /home/g/.vim/Notes.swp /home/g/.vim/nzb.sh.swp /home/g/.vim/makesess.vim.swp /home/g/.vim/backup.sh.swp /home/g/.vim/.vimrc.swp /home/g/.vim/.bashrc.swp /home/g/.vim/renamer.sh.swp /home/g/.vim/vimcht.swp /home/g/.vim/grepnotes.sh.swp /home/g/Scripts/.reseq.awk.swp /home/g/.fluxbox/.menu.swp ~ $rm -rf *.swp ...............................the doubtful rm command ~ $find /home -name *swp ..............the same find command, showing some deleted, and some not /home/g/.vim/Notes.swp /home/g/.vim/backup.sh.swp /home/g/.vim/.vimrc.swp /home/g/Scripts/.reseq.awk.swp /home/g/.fluxbox/.menu.swp ~ $rm -rf *swp For example, why did it remove /home/g/.vim/renamer.sh.swp but ignore /home/g/.vim/backup.sh.swp
