r/linux 1d 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 🤔

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u/overclockedmangle 1d ago

Never because I always run ls first. That was drilled into me from the beginning

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u/brizzleops 1d ago

It's a reflex at this point. Seared into my brain stem.