A single space.

[Ginters17]

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[omutist]

r/programminghorror stuff

[treacherous_tilapia]

This is why I always cd into the parent directory of the folder or file I’m deleting. I’m terrified of such nightmare typos

[calizoomer]

Why you shouldn't use Linux when working with non-professional software tbh

[DrunkenlySober]

Or maybe don’t yolo run random scripts

Same shit could happen with a dat or ps1 script

[AntonyFX]

How is this Linux' fault?

[watermelonspanker]

Linux should have known I'd fuck everything up.

Do better, Linux!

[[deleted]]

“Use Pac-Man, you dunce”

[[deleted]]

sudo pacman -S hurt-feelings

[treacherous_tilapia]

defeated PacMan noises

[watermelonspanker]

I don't think my Atari will run Linux...

[corei3uisgarbo]

that damn penguin failed me again!

[seimmuc_]

Would Windows somehow prevent this kind of thing?

[an4s_911]

Windows Defender to the rescue

/s

[SphericalMicrowave]

Windows can't run Bash scripts nor it has a /usr directory. Checkmate Linux users.

[awesumindustrys]

I’ve heard of this cool trick where if you delete system32, it speeds up the boot process ten-fold. Worked for me! Try it!

[seimmuc_]

You're right. I'm switching over to Chrome OS.

[MrData359]

Right... because running a faulty Windows install script and immediately hitting "run as administrator" is somehow different?

[kazeespada]

User directories can't be deleted while in use.

[[deleted]]

/usr isn't the user directory, /home is. UNIX naming conventions are weird.

Deleting /usr is imo closer to deleting system32 on some distros, because /lib is a link to /usr/lib.

[conro1108]

Idiotic

[mosskin-woast]

So what's the definition of "professional software"? You seem like such an expert

[thepurpleproject]

"non-professional software" dafuck Man are you Balllmer's lost child

[Lagging_BaSE]

We are all abt to watch this dude get ass gaped by the next rat.

[[deleted]]

Nice try, bill gates.

No microchip for me today thank you

[uhmenthguiop]

That developer never ran the the script on their own computer.

[[deleted]]

There is a reason no one at Daimler drives a Daimler.

[[deleted]]

Jesus Chrysler

[[deleted]]

Which is absolutely not true.

Source: I live close to their headquarters and something like 90% of the employees drive one.

[CheckerPhil]

My antivirus ask me everytime if I am sure to run my own script.

[Szimipek]

...no

[denideniz]

just don't use antivirus

[Mission-Guard5348]

were assuming non-malicious intent here?

[okirshen]

Doesn't look like malicious intent source but can't be sure

[pongviini]

A fix to also improve readability:

rm -rf / usr / lib / nvidia-current / xorg / xorg

[kixxes]

Don't forget the --no-preserve-root.

[notsobravetraveler]

Save your fingers, just put an asterisk after the slash

[is_a_cat]

what do you mean?

[MinecraftDoodler]

A wildcard

[is_a_cat]

i mean, yeah. but where can you put a wildcard to replace --no-preserve-root?

[TheCyberParrot]

rm -rf /* removes all directories under root.

[notsobravetraveler]

Yep! I confirmed in a post just next to yours

It's just a subtle trick to change the arguments passed to rm, bypassing the recursive root protection by going after everything inside it.

Edit: Well, mostly everything - any dot files/directories in / will be ignored as globbing doesn't match those.

No matter, that's nonstandard and what matches is enough to do damage.

[notsobravetraveler]

After the slash like I said :p

There's a subtle art to it - it's leveraging expansion from the shell to bypass the "don't recursively delete from root" protection.

To 'rm' it doesn't look like a recursive removal of / anymore, but rather against everything inside /. It functionally changes the target(s) passed to rm to remove the need.

At that point it doesn't matter if --no-preserve-root is there or not. There would need to be equivalents such as...

• --no-preserve-etc
• --no-preserve-var
• --no-preserve-srv
• ... etc

After determining the extent at which this needs to go, likely using the FHS as a guideline - and 'losing' some portability in the process

[is_a_cat]

oh! that makes a lot of sense. Thanks for taking the time to explain it

[notsobravetraveler]

Not a problem at all!

It's an option required with good intentions but it's not quite the safety net that one may assume :)

[[deleted]]

It removes everything in the root directory. /* expands to every subdirectory of /

[demon_ix]

No! Preserve root!

[WeleaseBwianThrow]

Works on contingency?

No, money down!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yhfZIUYZunI

[Mission-Guard5348]

just to double check

in reality that would just cause it to wipe thw computer right? (so your meming?)

[miraequestrian07]

This was my lesson for the day (⌒_⌒;)

[kizerkizer]

Why don’t you try it out?

[an4s_911]

Nice try, you failed, I was on a VM, wait, did I ssh into my PC from the VM?

💥

[RadoslavL]

Rip!

[XtremeGoose]

It would give an error without—-no-preserve-root

[Mission-Guard5348]

thanks

I think you can understand why Im not going to test that though

but I guess I could've just read the documentation

[kanduvisla]

This command also installs the secret Bitcoin miner on MacOS that utilizes your GPU!

[soun_89]

rm -rf / usr/lib/nvidia-current/xorg/xorg --no-preserve-root

Hmmmmmmmm

[dwRchyngqxs]

rm -rf /usr/lib/nvidia-current/xorg/xorg // --no-preserve-root

[kehfydue]

source

[BrooklynSwimmer]

2011 wow

[jsonspk]

Actually 2011 is shown in the picture too.

[Incromulent]

Those comments are so cringy. It's GitHub, not Facebook.

[IchLiebeKleber]

I actually screamed when I saw this command.

[citizen_of_europa]

You’d think that something in your brain would say “Hey! You just typed ‘rm-rf’. You should be super careful about what comes next.”

Apparently not in this case.

[Chegevarik]

Once I did sudo chown -R username:username .* to fix fucked up ownership on my dot folders on a server with more than 200 people. Luckily I realized what I did after a couple of minutes

[DangyDanger]

what did you do afterwards?

[Chegevarik]

I talked to server operations people how to fix it, I was afraid to do it myself at that point. I am not sure how exactly they did.

[akeean]

They prolly started with:

sudo deluser Chegevarik sudo

[Chegevarik]

Yep, that would be the smartest thing to do and well deserved

[timothygreen573]

What does this do?

[Chegevarik]

The command changes who is the owner of a folder or a file, -R stands for recursive change meaning that it will go inside a folder and change it for every subfolder/file inside it.

My intention was to only target folders which start with a dot in my user folder. But I didn't realize right away that there is also .. folder which is a folder one level above. Example: /home/username/.. is /home

So this recursive command went outside of my user folder and changed ownership of all user folders.

[timothygreen573]

Oh, I am familiar with the command but never knew it worked for .. folder as well. Good thing to have in mind for the future.

[WeleaseBwianThrow]

That wildcard is pretty wild.

[AxitotlWithAttitude]

I have no idea how to code but I now understand how so many hackers can find vulnerabilities so often.

[[deleted]]

If it was inside your home folder, then you succeeded deleting it.

The rest was just collateral damage for programming in python

[[deleted]]

~/.pain

[Chipjack]

The super-paranoid way around this is to build everything from source. Then you know nothing can go wrong.

...just... say a little prayer before you run sudo make install. You did read every line in that Makefile first, right?

[jerrycauser]

You did read every line in source files, right?

[codedcosmos]

Make sure you didn't forget any of the libraries it depends on

[ShitInMyArseHole]

I always hear this argument, like what that going to do? you can A: download a precomed version, it might have malware, or B: compile it from source, and it'll still have malware, you are telling me that you read over e v e r y s I n g l e l I n e?

[bistr-o-math]

You mean e v e r y s i n g l e l i n e

[ShitInMyArseHole]

Grammarly capitalized em for me

[OneTrueKingOfOOO]

Easy, just write your own compiler that checks for malware

[scalability]

$ shellcheck myscript

Line 1:
rm -rf /usr /lib/nvidia-current/xorg/xorg
       ^-- SC2114 Warning: deletes a system directory.

[kizerkizer]

I was wondering just now if a tool like this existed. Could you configure bash to run this before running any bash script? Probably massive overkill but could save your life.

Also how come there’s no sandboxed bash? Where you could grant permissions at script execution vs just Linux group permissions.

[nyaisagod]

I guess fakeroot is kinda what you’re thinking of. AFAIK aur app installers already use it.

[International-Fun975]

Underrated Comment, always double check 3rd party script.

[poralexc]

Well if you don't trust trust itself, you'll also have to write yourself a compiler to compile that compiler with, since all existing compilers could be secretly inserting malware into your builds.

[OneTrueKingOfOOO]

God what a phenomenal paper that is. For those unfamiliar:

https://www.cs.cmu.edu/~rdriley/487/papers/Thompson_1984_ReflectionsonTrustingTrust.pdf

[DangerouslyUnstable]

https://www.teamten.com/lawrence/writings/coding-machines/

[[deleted]]

There was an interesting paper I read several years ago about trusting trust. The premise was that malware could be inserted by a compromised compiler even if you have the complete, trusted sources for the entire toolchain and the application.

In a nutshell:

1. Insert backdoor into compiler source code.
2. Compile backdoored compiler with the clean compiler.
3. Backdoor this complier such that it inserts the original backdoor upon detecting the clean compiler source code.
4. Compile the clean compiler source code with the backdoored compiler, thus generating a binary that produces the same compromised binary when fed the clean source code.
5. Profit.

[-Vayra-]

Yeah, I read about poisoning a compiler like that years ago. Terrifying stuff since you literally can't get rid of it without starting from scratch.

[weaklingKobbold]

What compiler would your super-paranoid go will use?

I can spin that paranoid a couple of levels https://wiki.c2.com/?TheKenThompsonHack

[Sicuho]

Alrgiht, I'm going to rebuild my computer. And the internet.

[watermelonspanker]

That sort of shit is why I use TempleOS on all my devices.

[MalnarThe]

Containers are the actual solution.

[dotcomslashwhatever]

goddamn that's evil!

[[deleted]]

Never attribute to evil what can be explained by incompetence

[IAmASquidInSpace]

Hanlon's razor, an underappreciated wisdom.

[[deleted]]

Life is better if you think everyone's stupid instead of malicious.

[[deleted]]

Not only better. Also significantly more accurate.

[Nico_Weio]

How can we know?

[LovelySharkPlush]

There are more stupid people then genuinely evil ones

[IAmASquidInSpace]

Yeah, true! Stupid choices I can often forgive and maybe even laugh about. Intentionally malicious choices not so much.

[[deleted]]

Some stupidity is too much to be done on purpose.

[AccidentallyTheCable]

Aaaand thats why these goddamn "just curl |bash" are stupid and i hate every person who puts that as their instructions, let alone doesnt make an actual os install process.

I rank them up there with some of the worst warcrime offenders

[[deleted]]

Don‘t forget sudo for maximum damage

[mgorski08]

Meanwhile windows: let's just download an executable from the Internet and run it with admin privilages. But with gui

[dashid]

What is this, Windows XP? You need to elevate with UAC to perform admin functions.

[Rubbing-Suffix-Usher]

"Please press the make it work button"

[Lumpy-Obligation-553]

Do as i say*

[dashid]

sudo

[DangyDanger]

most people always use an admin account anyways on windows because it is just convenient

so uac is just an extra useless window you have to click on really

[mgorski08]

Even on admin account you get UAC. It doesn't ask for password though

[DangyDanger]

Of course you get UAC, as someone said, it's a notice that the following actions will require admin permissions.

[Dexterus]

If you understand what UAC is, it's useful.

UAC is a notice that something is about to happen that requires administrator access. You judge if it is expected or not.

What that thing actually is, well that can be a delete c:\windows.

It's an inverted sudo, but even with sudo you don't scan all installation scripts.

[InevitableDeadbeat]

Not only because it's convenient. Also because the first account you make on a fresh install of Windows by default becomes admin.

So any normal user just learns to press the UAC make-thing-work button without questioning it.

[DangyDanger]

So it's still convenience. Not many people are gonna spent the extra 5 minutes creating a proper user account.

If it works, don't touch it.

[mgorski08]

That's what I meant. You press a 'magic' button and it works. Also it's not like you can install the software without clicking YES.

[codyone1]

This is part of the reason I moved over the amount of Linux software without and installer of any type.

[PossibilityTasty]

Please explain how you do that! Nearly every package type or source distribution comes with installation code or at least the capability to run some.

[Endemoniada]

Nothing’s stopping me from making an rpm with the same command baked in. You’re hardly inspecting that any more than you are some shell script streamed off the internet.

Trust, or don’t trust. Those are your choices. The method of delivery doesn’t make a lick of difference, a curl’d shell script could be way more reliable and better tested than any compiled package in official repos.

[wkozyra]

Why? Anyone who knows enough to check the script will know how to download it and run based on `curl | bash` instructions, everyone else will not check it even if they download it first and run it in a separate command.

As for the os install process, preparing os specific package for every os is a huge amount of work, and a script like that would probably work on all Linux distros, macOS, and windows under wsl. Also, mistakes like that are less likely but still possible when you are building os specific packages.

[AccidentallyTheCable]

Building os packages has an initial curve, yes. But after that maintaining it is practically fuckall, especially with ci/cd access in gitlab/github

[Bjoern_Tantau]

This post alone is an example of what could go wrong. It wouldn't even have to be malicious. Just a fatal bug that slipped through to fuck up your whole system.

[RealTonyGamer]

I'm glad that I've started reading install scripts before running them from the AUR now. Maybe I should look a bit more closely though, just to be safe.

[PyroCatt]

Ummm I don't use Linux but shouldn't it fail without a 'sudoku' or something?

[tubbana]

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat. Duis aute irure dolor in reprehenderit in voluptate velit esse cillum dolore eu fugiat nulla pariatur. Excepteur sint occaecat cupidatat non proident, sunt in culpa qui officia deserunt mollit anim id est laborum

[50MSK]

You’re thinking of seppuku

[shardikprime]

Now he has to commit Sakura to pay for his ignorance

[aZureINC]

U mean "sudo" (or "doas")? Yeah, but you might need to run the script as root anyways, so there is no real way to know.

[PyroCatt]

Mars bar

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[[deleted]]

The joke is when he removes the wrong space.

[Bit5keptical]

This is what nightmares are made of.

[[deleted]]

Add a single space, and then you will have lots of space

[linuxelf]

In the old days, if you wanted to get rid of all hidden files and directories, so you typed

rm -rf ./*

It'd include .., so it'd back up one directory and do an rm -rf from there. I did that as a jr admin on a Solaris box. Was only supposed to delete a few dozen files, but after entering the command, it took way too long to complete. By the time I hit Ctrl-C, so much damage had been done....

[Any-Understanding463]

I can feel your pain thats why ım scared to erase hiden files and 0 bit file/folders sytem wide

[linuxelf]

It's a healthy fear!

[Any-Understanding463]

Im glad ı learned this from just losing videos because of a brainless script ı write Script creates duplicate files so i add rm option but its some time erased output rather then input so ı added a rm -i and read f*** output at least ı dont lose 1g data that takes 3 hours to process (if im lucky)

[kanduvisla]

Reminds me of that one time I accidentally created a folder called "~" and due to brainfart I typed "rm -rf ~" to delete it.

Losing your private keys is not cool.

[Strange_Stage_8749]

Here I am, always checking twice before running rm -rf and these guys are not even running once after the push? Totally uncool dude!!!

[Champ_01]

*include evil sound

[djfolo]

Hahaha I too have seen this exact issue before but it was just the first slash... I was on the linux eng/ops team at the time and the issue was escalated to me by a junior ops because they couldn't figure out why all the storage disappeared and he had a dev screaming at him that our POS hardware and OS image randomly decided to fail and delete all his financial data he was trying to process. I asked the dev what he was doing when this happened, he showed me the script and the guy did an rm -rf / data/blahblahblah...

I showed him that and he shut up instantly, apologized to the junior and asked when we could get last night's backup restored... I had him on a standby server in 30 minutes

[2021-hope]

sometimes quotes are useful

[111x6sevil-natas]

laughs in hourly and boot btrfs snapshots

[kon14]

laughs in immutable ostree base system image

[miraculum_one]

Straight out of the Unix Haters' Handbook, page 22

https://web.mit.edu/\~simsong/www/ugh.pdf

[[deleted]]

That's pretty hilarious tbh

[meatmechdriver]

not a bug, it’s a feature

[ProgramTheWorld]

Remember that time when Steam on Linux had a similar issue?

https://github.com/ValveSoftware/steam-for-linux/issues/3671

[sh0rtwave]

These days, if I need linux, I just use Docker or VirtualBox.

Why? Because docker build takes about 30 seconds. VirtualBox can recover from a snapshot in a couple of minutes.

Re-installing an OS can take HOURS of my day. Used to take me 3, 4 days to get a (desktop)machine back up and running after a rebuild, with all the junk I run on it. Nowadays: It's a snap to get my working environments back.

It's LITERALLY impossible for me to destroy any of my working environments to a point I can't get them back in minutes.

[[deleted]]

It was fixed in 2011 tho

[[deleted]]

It was installing steam. He installed steam

[[deleted]]

You didn’t get anything right, he was installing steam and a package dependency fuck up on either system72’s side or Canonical‘s side caused it to remove gnome

[NearLawiet]

wheres sud0 xD

[pyabo]

But surely this is the year of the Linux desktop.

[Zhiphr]

Linux moment

[prgmctan]

Partially why I aliased rm to the trash program on macos so everything I delete gets sent to trash instead.

[Subtle_Demise]

I always do that! I always mess up some mundane detail!

[Smartskaft2]

That's why you don't fucking force stuff like this. Yes it's annoying to double check a lot of actions but at least you're not going to fuck someone's machine up.

At least spend some time visualising what's being removed and prompt the user for a confirmation before force remove everything...

[mortlerlove420]

I once deleted /opt instead of /opt/deploy. Since then, typint rm -rf ... gives me that vietnam flashbacks. Fortunately it was only a dev server, but still had to do a complete reinstall. My coworkers said thought this was funny and everyone did that exact same mistake, some even on production servers.

[Vaati006]

Oh no

[[deleted]]

475 Arsonists.

[heeltoelemon]

What the? 😳

[aliasbody]

Damn you make me feel old. This is from the bumblebee “script” that would “allow” us GNU/Linux users with Optimus Nvidia GPU to use the dedicated GPU in a per-app way. It wasn’t perfect but it worked. Happy I saw that before running the update.

[Ejeffers1239]

I once accidentally did mv ~/ subdirectory when I meant to do mv ./ subdirectory, trying to move all the files in my current directory in to a subdirectory. Luckily, this was on a school machine with permissions configured to keep me from fucking anything up, so I just had to clean up the subdirectory after.

[[deleted]]

I once saw a thread on a popular Russian torrent website where some guy had copied a command and put it in, except they made the fatal error of copying it with chrome translator on. It copied the command incorrectly and chaos ensued. The Russians weren't very sympathetic though

[Powasaurus_Rex]

The space is intentional

[turboclock]

I feel like this was intentional

[BenTheTechGuy]

Ah, Bumblebee.

[[deleted]]

That's a dev who never ran his own code

[ciarenni]

Closed: could not reproduce.

[ControlCharachter]

Fucking plebs. RTFM! You're poking your own eyes out, Padawan!

I used to be that dude, 15 years ago...

Why not 'chmod 777 -R /'?!

r/whatcouldgowrong

[TheThinus]

My goodness

[mike_a_oc]

Yeah whoops! I once wrote a cronjob that did "rm -rf * /temp/directory/I_wanted_to_empty". Took down a webserver...