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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.
Reminds me in the t-shirt: "don't drink and root"
I fucking hate using rm for these very reasons.
There's another program called "trash-cli" that gives you a trash command instead of going straight to deletion.
I'm not sure why more distros don't include it by default, or why more tutorials don't mention it.
it could be worse: rm -rv ~ /etc
OOOOOOOOOOOF!!
One trick I use, because I'm SUPER paranoid about this, is to mv things I intend to delete to /tmp, or make /tmp/trash or something.
That way, I can move it back if I have a "WHAT HAVE I DONE!?" moment, or it just deletes itself upon reboot.
Just get a cli trash tool and alias it to rm. Arch wiki
That's certainly something you can do! I would personally follow the recommendation against aliasing rm though, either just using the trash tool's auto complete or a different alias altogether.
Reason being as someone mentioned below: You don't want to give yourself a false sense of security or complacency with such a dangerous command, especially if you use multiple systems.
I liken it to someone starting to handle weapons more carelessly because the one they have at home is "never loaded." Better safe than sorry.
Lol we should have "rules of rm safety":
Yeah, there's no need to alias it. Trash-cli comes with its own trash command.
I think this is the best approach. I've created a short alias for my trash tool and also aliased rm to do nothing except print a warning. This way you train yourself to avoid using it. And if I really need it for some reason I can just type \rm.
If you want to train yourself even more effectively you can also alias rm to run sl instead :)
you can also alias
rmto runslinstead :)
Choo-choo!!
Hehe I just thought of a hilariously nefarious prank: alias ls to sl. π
i always do "read;rm ./file" which gives me a second to confirm and also makes it so i don't accidentally execute it out of my bash history with control-r
Reusing names of critical system directories in subdirectories in your home dir.
I agree with this take, don't wanna blame the victim but there's a lesson to be learned.
except if you read the accompanying text they already stated the issue by accidentally unpacking an archive to their user directory that was intended for the root directory. that's how they got an etc dir in their user directory in the first place
Next time:
ls ~/etc
rm -rv !$
Or press alt+. to paste final argument of previous command
This is also dangerous because you could run the second command by accident later when browsing command history
with tab you can expand the !$, should be a zsh thing
HAH rookie, I once forgot the . before the ./
Nvidia once did it in their install script
o.7
Genuinely curious⦠why using root for operations like these?
To feel the thrill
I am new to Linux and just getting somewhat comfortable as my daily driver, very proud of myself that I got the joke pretty quickly :)
Oof. I always type the whole path just because I have made this mistake before.
Be happy that you didn't remeber the ~ and put a space between it and etcπ.
Sudo apt-get install /etc
Ok speaking of this, where do a distroβs config and boot scripts even come from? Are they in a package? Like on Debian so the .debs have metadata that can add cron jobs and such?
βJust a little off the top pleaseβ
π
Let he who has not wrongly deleted system critical files in Linux cast the first stone.
Amateurs. You all did it accidentally. I deleted system critical files intentionally believing it was beneficial.
This is why you should setup daily snapshots of your system volumes.
Btrfs and ZFS exist for a reason.
Great! Now you can enjoy that freshly assembled directory feeling, knowing that now you only have the configs in there that you need.
So good to see that, even in 2026, Unix Haters' Handbook's part on rm is still valid. See page 59 of the pdf
Yeah, same thing like with unclosed bottles, cup too close to the table edge, etc.: Accidents that can hapen, will happen.
Better name them something else in your user dir.
And yes, painful experience.
Things like these are right of passage on Linux :)
Ahh, the rites of passage!
Your first mistake was attempting to unarchive to / in the first place. Like WTF. Why would this EVER be a sane idea?
Ohohoho man did you ever fuck up. I did that once too. I can't remember how I fixed it. I think I had to reinstall the whole OS
Is there any reason to use a root account? If you had used sudo for each privilege needing command in stead it would have stopped you.
Is there any reason to use a root account?
if you just borked your /etc and need to rebuild because you don't have sudo anymore