[TriLUG] A funny thing happened

Andrew Perrin andrew_perrin at unc.edu
Fri Jan 25 15:12:48 EST 2002


On Fri, 25 Jan 2002, M. Mueller (bhu5nji) wrote:

> On Friday 25 January 2002 02:05 pm, you wrote:
> > On Fri, 25 Jan 2002, M. Mueller (bhu5nji) wrote:
> > > rm -fr ~
> > >
> > > Here's the funny part.  I meant to enter:
> > >
> > > rm -fr ./~
> > >
> > > "Golly," I thought to myself as I began to fully appreciate what that
> > > command had gone and done, "that sure is a powerful command."  It had
> > > completely erased my user directory contents.  I was laughing at my
> > > mistake while I reloaded MDK8.1 twice and setup my mail accounts again.
> >
> > Ummm... why do you need to reinstall the OS because you deleted user-space
> > files?
> >
> Too stupid to know how to get back configurations files and <looks down and 
> kicks dirt> I didn't have a back up.

Sorry if this is beating a dead horse, but I wouldn't expect configuration
files to be generated in user space by an OS install; I'd think you would
just re-run the application for the "first" time or take whatever other
steps are involved in initial configuration. Doesn't an rm -fr ~ just make
you effectively a new user?

Not that backups are a bad thing :)....

ap


----------------------------------------------------------------------
Andrew J Perrin - andrew_perrin at unc.edu - http://www.unc.edu/~aperrin
 Assistant Professor of Sociology, U of North Carolina, Chapel Hill
      269 Hamilton Hall, CB#3210, Chapel Hill, NC 27599-3210 USA







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