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Top Forums UNIX for Advanced & Expert Users How to prevent Accidents 'rm -rf *'? Post 302904231 by cero on Tuesday 3rd of June 2014 04:08:51 AM
Old 06-03-2014
That's why I explained how I interpreted the original post, but you're right, I was not clear enough.
I assumed that the third party tool issues rm -rf /* if the user of that tool does not provide any arguments. ONLY this case is catched. The user of that tool may not have any knowledge that he is working on an UNIX system at all because he only sees that tools frontend and may not know what effect is caused by not giving any arguments.
For all other cases I'll quote you:
Quote:
Originally Posted by Don Cragun
UNIX utilities are there to help you get a job done. If you use them correctly, they can do wonderful things for you. If you tell them to do stupid things, you'll get what you asked for.
A user who issues the commands you mentioned in the last reply most likely knows what he is doing - that would not be an accidental use of the rm command.

Edit again: thanks for pointing out the issues in your last paragraph.
In my tests (using GNU bash, version 4.1.5(1)-release (x86_64-pc-linux-gnu)) the script compains correctly when there are files in the root directory that contain space or tab characters in their names.
I'm not sure if the race condition can be entirely avoided (given my assumtions about the problem are correct).
The issue with whitespaces in the operand list is caused by my lack of quoting. The last line should read /bin/rm "$@".

Last edited by cero; 06-03-2014 at 08:26 AM..
 

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args(1) 							   GNU Telephony							   args(1)

NAME
args - manipulate and output command arguments. SYNOPSIS
args [options] args... DESCRIPTION
This command is used to manipulate and echo command line arguments to standard out. This can include adding quotes around each argument passed or a separator, or to output each argument on a separate line. The program source also offers a basic example of how to use shell argument parsing and localization in ucommon. OPTIONS
--delim=char Set a deliminator character, such as ',', to use between each argument when outputing arguments. --directory If argument is a directory, list directory contents as arguments. --follow If argument is a directory and a symlink, follow symlinks recursively. --lines Output each argument on a separate line. --quote=char|pair Set a quote or special leading and trailing pair of characters to surround each argument with when output. A typical use might be --quote=() to surround arguments in parenthesis. --recursive If argument is a directory, recursively scan directory and any subdirectory contents as arguments. --reverse Reverse order of arguments. --help Outputs help screen for the user. AUTHOR
args was written by David Sugar <dyfet@gnutelephony.org>. REPORTING BUGS
Report bugs to bug-commoncpp@gnu.org. COPYRIGHT
Copyright (C) 2009 David Sugar, Tycho Softworks. This is free software; see the source for copying conditions. There is NO warranty; not even for MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICU- LAR PURPOSE. GNU uCommon January 2010 args(1)
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