GNOME hangs
Jeff Vian
jvian10 at charter.net
Tue Aug 8 01:21:30 UTC 2006
On Mon, 2006-08-07 at 23:00 +0100, Chris Jones wrote:
> > Eventually, that even didn't work and I was advised to do something
> > which turned out to be disastrous so NEVER EVER issue the following from
> > a root shell
> >
> > rm -rf $Home/*
>
> I cannot say enough bad things about whoever suggested this to you (If they
> actually did, which I really hope they didn't)
>
> I guess the INTENTION was to delete everything from the home area of some user
> account . However,
>
> 1. The first problem is if you are logged in as root $HOME (yes, all upper
> case, see point 2 below) $HOME evaluates to /root. So all you end up doing is
> deleting all your root account config/account files.
>
> 2. The environment variable $Home does not exist ! It is $HOME. So if you had
> a clue what you where doing, and had tried
>
> > echo rm -rf $Home/*
>
> first you would have discovered
>
> #[root at localhost ~]# echo rm -rf $Home/*
> rm -rf /bin /boot /data /data2 /dev /etc /home /lhcb /lib /lost+found /media /misc /mnt /net /proc /root /sbin /selinux /srv /sys /tmp /usr /var /winxp
>
> i.e. as you discovered this command eats EVERYTHING...
>
> Let this be a lesson.
>
> Chris
>
As root, on Fedora, the rm command does include the -i option (it is an
alias). However, \rm does not include the -i because it uses the system
rm command and not the alias.
However, Chris, I believe you are being too lenient with whomever told
him to do that. I would be more inclined to believe that whoever it was
actually meant what you list as the output. IE, I would believe it
certainly was meant as a nefarious way to wipe out the entire system.
I do not give the benefit of the doubt to those who prey on the
inexperienced and unsuspecting that way.
> p.s. I suggest ANY rm command you run as root should include the -i flag
>
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