Date: Tue, 17 Oct 2000 03:54:37 +0000 From: Tony Finch <dot@dotat.at> To: "Jason C. Wells" <jcwells@nwlink.com> Cc: Kris Kirby <kris@catonic.net>, freebsd-chat@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Re: Traditional UN*X conventions (Or: Why not to login as root?) Message-ID: <20001017035437.B537@hand.dotat.at> In-Reply-To: <Pine.SOL.3.96.1001016133315.4098A-100000@utah> References: <Pine.BSF.4.21.0010150739480.59649-100000@spaz.huntsvilleal.com> <Pine.SOL.3.96.1001016133315.4098A-100000@utah>
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"Jason C. Wells" <jcwells@nwlink.com> wrote: > >Let's consider the following typo: > ># cd / ># rm -rf /tmp/ * > >Which the user intended to be: > ># cd / ># rm -rf /tmp/* > >If you are in fact root, then you are in fact very, very screwed if you >issue the typo. In this case, not being root will save you from removing >every last file on every mounted disc. Well, one usually spots the mistake and interrupts it fairly quickly. There's /boot /bin /dev /etc before you get to anything important :-) (One of the disadvantages of softupdates, however, is that it'll get through those directories in the blink of an eye...) I have managed to recover a machine that had crashed and destroyed those directories. Recovering it was tricky, because of various infelicities in the fixit CD and the difficulty of remounting / read-write when /dev is missing. Oh, and init does interesting things when /bin/sh is missing (it oscillates rapidly back-and-forth between failing to start /etc/rc and failing to drop into single-user mode). Tony. -- en oeccget g mtcaa f.a.n.finch v spdlkishrhtewe y dot@dotat.at eatp o v eiti i d. fanf@covalent.net To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-chat" in the body of the message
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