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Several programs make backup files by renaming a file that they are about to over-write to one with the same name, but with a tilde appended. In particular, I use " rsync ", which does this.

After a while a lot of uneeded backup files accumulate. No problem, right? Just type " rm *~ " to get rid of them. I have developed the good habit of entering a list command, and then editing it to a remove. When I did this I surprised to see a very long list of file names, many of which did not end with a tilde!

That happened because I had a symbolic link to a directory. At some time, a backup of the symbolic link was made, effectively making a directory with a name ending in tilde. The contents of this directory were listed.

I leave it as an exercise to determine if " rm *~ " will always remove the same files that are listed by " ls *~ ", and if the same holds for other patterns.

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