bug#79218: BUG: sudo rm -rf /* removes without --no-preserve-root
Doctorixx <[email protected]>
| Newsgroups | gmane.comp.gnu.core-utils.bugs |
|---|---|
| Message-ID | <CAC9Z=V0ajBXfmK1Ga6XA7XH940cK6OwzFkApOyh2UBy1Pq_pFw@mail.gmail.com> |
Hello coreutils maintainers, I noticed a potentially dangerous difference in how rm handles the / and /* patterns. Currently: $ sudo rm -rf / rm: it is dangerous to operate recursively on '/' rm: use --no-preserve-root to override this failsafe This prevents accidental deletion of the root directory. However: $ sudo rm -rf /* This command will proceed to remove the contents of /, effectively destroying the system, without any warning. While this is technically correct according to shell expansion rules, it may be surprising for some users. People might assume /* is just as protected as /, but the safeguard doesn’t apply. P.S.: I removed root(