Feature request: rm should implement option -p, --parents

[Guido Flohr]

Hi,

desired behavior:

    $ mkdir /usr/share/myapp
    $ mkdir /usr/share/myapp/pixmaps
    $ mkdir /usr/share/myapp/pixmaps/8x16
    $ install -m 644 icon.png /usr/share/myapp/pixmaps/8x16/

Uninstalling with clean up in such cases is a frequent task, and could be 
greatly simplified by:

    $ rm --parents /usr/share/myapp/pixmaps/8x16/icon.png
    rm: failed to remove `/usr/share': Directory not empty
    $ ls /usr/share/myapp
    ls: cannot access /usr/share/myapp: No such file or directory

The idea is to remove the containing directory of a file recursively, upwards, 
and stop that recursion on the first failure to remove a directory, most 
probably because of ENOTEMPTY.

The same idea could be applied to chmod, chgrp, and chown.

Cheers,
Guido