[hansel_der]

> Is there really an initial environment where rm * ; rm * ; does something different than rm * once?

if * expands to the rm binary itself, maybe.

[maweki]

How is the system different after the first and after the second call?

[jgoldshlag]

If there is an rm executable in the current directory, and also one later in your PATH, the second run might use a different rm that could do whatever it wants to

[dotancohen]

This is actually a likely scenario, as it is common to alias rm to rm -i. Though your bash config will still run after .bashrc is nuked, some might wrap with a script instead of aliasing (e.g., to send items to Trash).

[hansel_der]

# rm rm

# rm rm

rm: command not found