Log in as root, go up and down your directory tree for about half an hour, stop at some random point and confidently type "rm -rf /home."
Now that feels exhilarating, in a "I think I'm going to throw up now" kind of way.
Friday, August 29, 2008
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
10 comments:
Unscheduled testing of backup and recovery plans is always very stimulating. It definitely gets the heart pumping, especially after an unforced error.
Been there, done that.
I heard a story from a software vendor CE who deleted everything from root down by mistake while doing an install at a customer site. On realizing the error he claimed to be called away before anyone noticed and never came back.
I did "del *.*" in the root directory of a DOS machine about fifteen years ago. Still gives me cold night sweats.
hhheeeeeeeeegh.
Hope you backed up, AP.
What were you INTENDING to do? I'm very curious.
And why were you doing it as root?
OK. I am my own sysadmin, for the most part. My server has two hard drives, one is used strictly for backup purposes. However, I hadn't done a full backup of the user files in quite some time. There was, for some reason, a home directory on /backup (the second mounted drive) as well as on /. Furthermore, inside the /backup/home directory was another home directory. I think this is a result of too many sysadmins (2 of us) doing backups.
So I log in as root, and start doing dus all over the directory tree, trying to find out what can be deleted to free up space on /backup. I had / open in one terminal window and /backup in another. I figure out what I want to delete and ...
Turns out I was in the right terminal window after all. But I nearly wet my pants.
Ever considered putting the directory name in your prompt?
um all of this is greek to me! root?!
tnt
That is hysterical. It also makes a great litmus test to identify people who have used a real operating system.
(I recently thought of one for "really old liberals" - people still concerned with repealing section 14-b of the Taft-Hartley act.)
Even in those instances where I am intending to wipe a drive, I hesitate before hitting enter at that particular prompt.
Yikes!
And now, a variation on your distress: I get to class tonight, hand out the syllabus, which I've just finished printing after polishing up this afternoon.
Begin lecture -- course overview. Talk about the big picture. Then begin to discuss the details of week-to-week projects and....
....and realize that the last bit of course policy you pasted in from two terms ago seems to have completely wiped out the marvelous three column table containing all 16 weeks of class topics, readings, writing assignments and due dates.
Admit to the class you would like to start drinking now.
Continue class for another hour.
Post a Comment