Re: Re: "Don't try this at home"

And even if it had worked, aren't you already breaking your first two rules? :)

The whole point was that I only realized these guidelines (maybe "rule of thumb" sounds too much like an edict to some people) after I was convinced that this person had just deleted their root filesystem.

Besides, your example wouldn't have worked. rm would have balked at the -c.

The -c was a switch to the adduser command, not to the rm command, if you reread the original code.

You're right, my whole post can probably be boiled down to "be careful." I didn't intend to say "never make a joke," I intended to say, "don't make a joke if you Know it may cause irreversible harm to someone." There are lines that can be drawn between acceptable and unacceptable behavior, though they aren't always very clear. I believe I may have crossed the line in this case.

Alan

Comment on Re: Re: "Don't try this at home"

Replies are listed 'Best First'.
Re3: "Don't try this at home" by Solo (Deacon) on Sep 17, 2002 at 21:08 UTC
I stand in complete defense of ferrency who has taken the high road during this whole situation. He could have had a snooze-you-lose attitude toward whom he was trying to help, but he didn't. The guidelines he proposes are as much to protect the person acting as 'mentor' as to protect the person being helped. As a bystander, I remember being glued to the CB with a sense of total awe and sinking disbelief while the (newly enrolled) monk he was helping said, 'umm, now the box won't reboot.' I can only imagine what ferrency was feeling. I would hate to ever be on either end of that situation. That's the wisdom in his guidelines.	[reply]
Re^3: "Don't try this at home" by Aristotle (Chancellor) on Sep 17, 2002 at 20:42 UTC
To be honest, I've been watching this thread from the sidelines and wondering what to say. If someone has no clue that `rm -rf /` means tabula rasa, should they have root on a production server in the first place? I understand what you're trying to say, and I respect the intent, but I think your appeal is misguided. I can't help feeling like it's just political correctness in a different context, an attempt to offer a safe and wholesome experience for the whole family. Ultimately, that is an excercise in absurdity. Where do you draw the line? Should the `rm` command print a `WARNING: this command may cause loss of data. Are you really sure you want to proceed?[n]` ? No amount of disclaimers can ever be a substitute for a healthy dose of common sense. Update: I feel I have to add what I just figured out was the reason that this thread irked me - the whole thing erupted out of what amounted to a practical joke on ferrency's expense rather than an actual disaster. So while I can understand the shock, there doesn't seem to be any actual evidence. Makeshifts last the longest.	[reply]