Date: Sun, 17 Apr 2016 18:53:57 -0400 From: Jake <milios@ccsys.com> To: David Christensen <dpchrist@holgerdanske.com> Cc: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Subject: Re: rm -rf -Mitigating the dangers Message-ID: <6743C8AB-D9FA-44C5-826F-1D7C094A9DBE@ccsys.com> In-Reply-To: <57140EA2.6020503@holgerdanske.com> References: <CAAdA2WNqWACnjiUSHhYWL1nEj=YGPPURqJHsAcjaXYacziXsfg@mail.gmail.com> <57140EA2.6020503@holgerdanske.com>
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> On Apr 17, 2016, at 6:30 PM, David Christensen <dpchrist@holgerdanske.com> wrote: > >> On 04/17/2016 10:10 AM, Odhiambo Washington wrote: >> I am wondering if I should place a feature request on this or just do it my >> way:) >> >> With great power comes great responsibility and as such I think there >> should be a wrapper around rm to warn sysadmins that what they are about to >> do with -rf is dangerous, yes? >> >> Read input from sysadmin 3 times, looking strictly for their confirmation >> before effecting the `rm -rf`. >> >> Could it be that what I am smoking/drinking is the issue here or I have >> your support? LOL > > I have this in my .bashrc: > > alias rm='rm -i --one-file-system' > > So, an accidental 'rm -rf' should limit destruction to one file system. > > > Perhaps what you're looking for is a command-line equivalent of desktop trash cans. STFW this is not a new idea and there are existing solutions. > > > David I for one cherish my God given constitutionally protected right to blast my darned foot clear off my bloody leg with one twitch of a hair trigger. :) A wrapper would be problematic. Too many scripts rely on rm doing what it's meant to do. Even testing for a tty on stdin or stdout cannot offer any straightforward way to guarantee adherence to expected behavior in times it's necessary. Perhaps a wrapper that simply sleeps for a few seconds first is viable but more complex logic would be necessary to avoid a horrific slowdown when used within some sort of loop. An alias or function which is only sourced by your shell when entering interactive mode would indeed be a good spot to place the proposed hypothetical solution.
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