Exactly type rm -rf / instead of rm -rf ./ and you ducked up. Well you messed up a long time ago by having privileges to delete everything, but then again, you are human, some mistakes will be made.
Deleting the current directory via ./ seems contrived since you would just use . or more likely the directory name from outside the directory. What does happen is rm -rf ${FOO}/ while ${FOO} is an empty string.
Exactly type
rm -rf /instead ofrm -rf ./and you ducked up. Well you messed up a long time ago by having privileges to delete everything, but then again, you are human, some mistakes will be made.Deleting the current directory via
./seems contrived since you would just use.or more likely the directory name from outside the directory. What does happen isrm -rf ${FOO}/while${FOO}is an empty string.Not sure if you’re referencing the Steam incident, but Steam did exactly that: https://www.theregister.com/2015/01/17/scary_code_of_the_week_steam_cleans_linux_pcs/
Even so,
.and/are right next to each other so it’s a likely typo. You might press enter before you catch it.The double check before you rm things 🤷.
${Insert meme of qwertz ganz not having that problem here}
yup, did that one on a server at work. had to go cap in hand to my manager to get him to fix it
Don’t modern versions of rm block calling on / unless you pass a separate flag?
Yup I think it’s --preserve-root