unbelievably stupid mistake - i broke /usr/lib need help

Robin Laing Robin.Laing at drdc-rddc.gc.ca
Fri Jan 6 20:19:26 UTC 2006


Mike McCarty wrote:
> Robin Laing wrote:
> 
>> Alastair McKinley wrote:
>>
>>
>> The first time I used "su -" I ended up wiping out my /root/* 
>> directory.  I have done it once since as well.  Since I really don't 
>> use root anymore, it was no loss.
>>
>> It is so easy to be distracted by someone coming into the office or a 
>> kid grabbing onto your leg.  :)  Or it being 3:30 in the morning when 
>> you have to get up at 5:30.
> 
> 
> Soooo true. Which is why one should never
> 
> (1) log on as root
> (2) use aliased commands for root for
>     (a) rm
>     (b) mv
>     (c) etc.
>     which have "-f" on them
> (3) use sudo for commands like (a)-(c) above,
>     (only use sudo for *list* type commands)
> (4) hit return before checking, looking away,
>     and checking again.
> 
> 
> I used to have a really nice list of do's and don't's
> for building some wooden musical equipment. One of the
> statements went something like this:
> 
> "Many of the mistakes in glueing together pieces are
> made late at night when one is in a hurry, and does
> 'one last thing' before going to bed. In the morning,
> the glue is set, and no changes can be made. The
> solution is don't do the last thing. Go to bed first.
> Don't do work when you are tired. It'll be there in
> the morning."
> 
> Following this advice has saved me a lot of work with
> my computers.
> 
> Mike

The first thing I usually do is make an aliases for rm, cp and mv to 
ask for confirmation.

alias rm='rm -i'
alias cp='cp -i --backup=t'
alias mv='mv -i --backup=t'

I wonder if there is a way to disable the "-f" option in rm as root.

I also want to look at the terminal settings and see if I can get the 
background to change when I su.




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