English Idiom in Unix: Directory Recursively

[Mike Barnes]

Xah Lee <xahlee at gmail.com>:
>For example, when you want to delete the whole dir in emacs, it
>prompts this message: “Recursive delete of xx? (y or n) ”.

AFAICS what emacs calls "recursive delete" is what the ordinary person
would simply call "delete". Presumably the non-recursive delete is
called simply "delete" but is actually something more complicated than
delete, and you're supposed to know what that is.

Also (I'm speculating) a recursive delete means carrying out the
(ordinary, non-recursive) delete process on sub-directories,
recursively. The result of which is, put simply, to delete the
directory.

I find all this somewhat arcane. Questioning the precise suitability of
the word "recursive" seems like a quibble.

-- 
Mike Barnes
Cheshire, England