rm -rf $Home (was GNOME hangs)
>> .... 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/*
>>
>
> Are you sure you executed the command above ? This would mean you
> deleted the /root directory and all its contents. Are you sure you
> didn't delete your personal home dir and everything in it ?
Actually as the above command is written, it would have deleted everything under /,
not /root. $Home is not set, but $HOME.
I've seen some scripts with the following:
LOGDIR=/var/log/myapp
cd $LOGDIR
rm -rf *
If for some reason LOGDIR is inaccessible then the script owners $HOME is likely to
be trashed. On some systems where root's home is not /root, then likely everything
in / gets trashed.
> Anyway, I guess you've learned your lesson, don't just
copy and execute
> commands (especially rm commands) from a root shell.
Which is incredibly good advice for any system...
--
* The Digital Hermit http://www.digitalhermit.com
* Unix and Linux Solutions kwan(a)digitalhermit.com