The former will gleefully delete all files/directories, even if there exists a directory entry named "-i", without asking. The difference is in glob expansion:

The former will gleefully delete all files/directories, even if there exists a directory entry named "-i", without asking. The difference is in glob expansion: ./* keeps the prefix on every expanded item. As mentioned above, using any sort of path (relative or absolute) prefix when globbing will circumvent all the careful "-i" wards a superstitious sysadmin may have put in place.