[Nottingham] *nix most dangerous command line commands...

[Martin]

OK folks,

I'll start the bits rolling with the question of how much damage can you
do to a Linux system as root with just one mistyped or missed character
on the command line?


My little gem for alarm is:

cat >>to_append_text_to_config_file

...and using ">" create/overwrite rather than ">>" append...

!


Similarly, using "whatever_command 2>&1 | tee -a append_to_log_file" and
forgetting the "-a"...


Other good one's for "ouch" that others trip over?

Can commands be made 'defensively' 'safer'?

Cheers,
Martin

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