&gt;Apparently he hit [something else] instead of typing out the [...] directory that he wanted to remove.<p>This exact reason is why I always and without fail type<p><pre><code>  rm &#x2F;some&#x2F;directory&#x2F;^A^[[C^[[C -rf
</code></pre>
(where ^A means Ctrl+A and ^[[C means right arrow key)<p>instead of<p><pre><code>  rm -rf &#x2F;some&#x2F;directory&#x2F;</code></pre>