Jeff Vian wrote:
On Fri, 2006-01-06 at 13:19 -0700, Robin Laing wrote:
Mike McCarty wrote:
Robin Laing wrote:
>More snips.<
The first thing I usually do is make an aliases for rm, cp and mv to
ask for confirmation.
alias rm='rm -i'
This is the default setting for root (you can check by running 'alias')
and takes effect when you do an 'su -'. However, the -f overrides that
(man rm).
I know that -f overides everything. I got into the habit before rm
used to do that. I also do it for all accounts as default.
The OP used rm -rf so it would not have mattered at all if the -i option
was set by default. His typo was a bit destructive.
alias cp='cp -i --backup=t'
alias mv='mv -i --backup=t'
The addition of the --backup option for mv might be nice. 'cp -i' and
'mv -i' are already aliases for root.
Why would I want a backup of a file I am copying? I am already making a
copy and not changing the original.
Sometimes I have multiple copies of files from different places. If I
am copying off of a CD and just by chance the file is different or
corrupt I have a backup to compare with. Again it goes with the
response to large number of files. It has saved my but more than once
when doing a "cp -rf" of a directory tree.
[root@eagle SL]# alias
alias cp='cp -i'
alias l.='ls -d .* --color=tty'
alias ll='ls -l --color=tty'
alias ls='ls --color=tty'
alias mv='mv -i'
alias rm='rm -i'
alias which='alias | /usr/bin/which --tty-only --read-alias
--show-dot --show-tilde'
This is the default list of aliases configured for root on my FC4
system.
I wonder if there is a way to disable the "-f" option in rm as root.
I would not want to! Using the -f option implies you know what you are
trying to do.
If you did it would take a reply to a prompt for *each* file being
deleted. Imagine if you were removing a large directory tree! Even
several hundred files would be extremely irritating (and doing software
development can easily result in a tree of that size quickly).
My rule of thumb is *always check what you type*, then *think* before
hitting the enter key. This was a hard learned lesson from some time
back with a typo that left my command "rm -rf / ......." using a full
path to a file. And you *know* what that did ;-(.
How about a second prompt something like "Your are root, are you sure
you want to delete using the force option?" as a one time prompt. Of
course if the terminal screen was different, it would be a reminder.
I also want to look at the terminal settings and see if I can get the
background to change when I su.
That is a very good idea. An extra reminder that you are in a dangerous
environment.
