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

[Rory Holland]

Well of course, you'd just recover from your most recent backup in that
instant. All commands are safe if your important files are backed up
regularly, and your unimportant ones occasionally.

Rory Holland <me at rory.sh>
More contact info: http://rory.sh


On 12 June 2014 12:01, Martin <martin at ml1.co.uk> wrote:

> 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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