I accidentally untarred archive intended to be extracted in root directory, which among others included some files for /etc directory.
I went on to rm -rv ~/etc, but I quickly typed rm -rv /etc instead, and hit enter, while using a root account.

  • BCsven@lemmy.ca
    40·
    6 hours ago

    Oof. I always type the whole path just because I have made this mistake before.

    • BillyClark@piefed.socialEnglish
      3·
      4 hours ago

      That doesn’t protect you from typos.

      rm -rv /home/schmuck /etc

      “Whoops, I accidentally added a space.”

      I have three ways around this:

      1. ls ~/etc … <press up arrow, replace ls with rm -rv>
      2. ls ~/etc … rm -rv !$
      3. Add the commands to a simple script and use variables to remove the danger of a command line.