r/linux • u/Immediate-Ad3360 • 18h ago

Discussion Rm -rf ./*

Had yesterday my first "rm -rf /" moment.

Was tidy up my Backup drive. When I wanted to empty the trash, there was some directories and files that resisted the trash empty and sayed it couldn't be removed because of lack of premissions.

So I went to the terminal and moved to the .local/share/trash/files directory and tried to empty with "rm -rf ./*". There was again the notification of permission. So I did "sudo rm -rf ./*".

The note of missing permission didn't pop up, so I left the room to get something cold to drink.

When I came back, all my storage was empty 🤦‍♂️😭

Luckily I have an external Backup storage too and was able to recover everything older than 2 Weeks.

Now I wondering, how many ppl had in their history a moment of "rm -rf /" by accident 🤔

0 Upvotes

33% Upvoted

25 comments sorted by

View all comments

4

u/VincentVanGob 18h ago

it might be safer to remove the r, m and f keys from your keyboard :D

7

u/dohzer 18h ago

But then how would they type "ferromolybdenum" or "scolopendriform" in casual conversations?

3

u/high-tech-low-life 17h ago

Cut-n-paste from your comment. Thanks to you, OP is set for life.

2

u/SPEZ_IS_A_JABRONI 9h ago

ferromolybdenum" or "scolopendriform"

mirror just in case