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Full Discussion: How to prevent Accidents 'rm -rf *'?
Top Forums UNIX for Advanced & Expert Users How to prevent Accidents 'rm -rf *'? Post 302904226 by Don Cragun on Tuesday 3rd of June 2014 03:03:21 AM
Old 06-03-2014
Quote:
Originally Posted by cero
One way would be alias rm to a script that checks its parameters:
Code:
alias rm='/usr/local/bin/myrm.sh

Code:
#!/bin/bash
# script: myrm.sh
# check parameters to prevent system damage

[ "$*" = "-rf $(echo /*)" ] && echo "Illegal parameters" && exit 1

/bin/rm $@

This is an extremely dangerous script. It seems to be intended to catch an attempt to remove all files in and under the root directory. But,it won't complain if you try any of the following (all of which do exactly what this script seems to be intended to catch):
Code:
rm -r -f /*
rm -f -r /*
rm -fr /*
cd /; rm -rf *
rm -rf /

It won't complain if there happen to be any files in the root directory that contain a tab character, start or end with a space character, or contain two or more adjacent space characters. It will fail if any file is added to or removed from the root directory between the time when the rm alias was called and the time when this script processes echo. And, it will attempt to remove a different set of files than what was requested if any files in the operand list contain any whitespace characters.
 

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LEARN ABOUT BSD

nice

NICE(1) 						      General Commands Manual							   NICE(1)

NAME

       nice, nohup - run a command at low priority (sh only)

SYNOPSIS

       nice [ -number ] command [ arguments ]

       nohup command [ arguments ]

DESCRIPTION

       Nice  executes  command	with low scheduling priority.  If the number argument is present, the priority is incremented (higher numbers mean
       lower priorities) by that amount up to a limit of 20.  The default number is 10.

       The super-user may run commands with priority higher than normal by using a negative priority, e.g. `--10'.

       Nohup executes command immune to hangup and terminate signals from the controlling terminal.  The priority  is  incremented  by	5.   Nohup
       should  be invoked from the shell with `&' in order to prevent it from responding to interrupts by or stealing the input from the next per-
       son who logs in on the same terminal.

FILES

       nohup.out standard output and standard error file under nohup

SEE ALSO

       csh(1), setpriority(2), renice(8)

DIAGNOSTICS

       Nice returns the exit status of the subject command.

BUGS

       Nice and nohup are particular to sh(1).	If you use csh(1), then commands executed with ``&'' are automatically immune  to  hangup  signals
       while  in  the  background.   There  is	a builtin command nohup which provides immunity from terminate, but it does not redirect output to
       nohup.out.

       Nice is built into csh(1) with a slightly different syntax than described here.	The form ``nice +10'' nices to positive nice,  and  ``nice
       -10'' can be used by the super-user to give a process more of the processor.

4th Berkeley Distribution					    May 8, 1986 							   NICE(1)
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