undo rm -rf *

[Bill Davidsen]

Reindl Harald wrote:
>
>
> Am 26.03.2013 21:08, schrieb Rick Stevens:
>> On 03/26/2013 10:35 AM, Reindl Harald issued this missive:
>>>
>>>
>>> Am 26.03.2013 18:03, schrieb Matthew Saltzman:
>>>>> this is safe since a very long time
>>>>>
>>>>> [root at testserver:/tmp]$ LANG=c; /usr/bin/rm -rf .*
>>>>> /usr/bin/rm: cannot remove directory: '.'
>>>>> /usr/bin/rm: cannot remove directory: '..'
>>>>
>>>> Does this not depend on where in the tree you are and what permissions
>>>> you have on . and ..?
>>>
>>> how many more permissions will you have than root?
>>
>> "rm" and "rmdir" take care to not delete "." or "..". "rm" also requires
>> the "-f" along with "-r" to delete non-empty directories. You don't
>> want to delete your current directory (".") and you sure don't want to
>> delete its parent ("..")
>
> and you don't as proven above
>
I hate to say it, but I don't want to ever have to trust that the rm I'm getting 
is the one I expect and not some alias, function, thing earlier on a PATH, and 
that I'm on a recent system which protects me from being reckless. If I have to 
think that hard I'd rather just use something safer and not put my faith in a 
check which I know is not universal to all systems.

I am not a trusting person.


-- 
Bill Davidsen <davidsen at tmr.com>
   "We have more to fear from the bungling of the incompetent than from
the machinations of the wicked."  - from Slashdot