dsw (command)

{{Short description|Obsolete shell command for deleting files with unutterable names}}

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{{EngvarB|date=March 2019}}

{{Infobox Software

| name = dsw

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| author = Dennis Ritchie, Ken Thompson

| developer = AT&T Bell Laboratories

| released = {{Start date and age|1971|11|3}}

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| operating system = Unix

| genre = Command

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dsw (delete from switches) is an obsolete Unix shell command which enables deletion of files with non-typeable characters. The command debuted in Unix Version 1 and was replaced by adding the {{code|-i}} option to rm[https://linuxgazette.net/issue49/fischer.html A Brief History of the 'rm' and 'rmdir' commands] in Version 7. Doug McIlroy wrote that dsw "was a desperation tool designed to clean up files with unutterable names".{{cite tech report |first1=M. D. |last1=McIlroy |author-link1=Doug McIlroy |year=1987 |url=http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~doug/reader.pdf |title=A Research Unix reader: annotated excerpts from the Programmer's Manual, 1971–1986 |series=CSTR |number=139 |institution=Bell Labs}}