On 21 March 2011 23:46, Joe Zeff <joe@xxxxxxx> wrote: > On 03/21/2011 04:23 PM, suvayu ali wrote: >> Whereas in >> a proper root shell aren't you prone to "grave mistakes" due to silly >> things like typos, "forgot where I am in the directory tree" like >> errors? > > First, I only use su - if and *only* if I have to, to avoid those > embarrassing "where was I?" moments. (I also use pwd if I'm not > completely sure.) Second, before I do anything as root, I read over the > command several times to be sure. And, before deleting *anything* as > root, I use ls to see exactly what I'm going to delete and I never > delete anything *as root* without good reason. I routinely su immediately after logging into a server, because very little of what I do (I work Tech Support for a hosting company) can be done without root access. However I am also very very careful. I never delete anything, because I simply move it out of the way instead. I will always create a backup before changing a file and I never do *anything* without a backout plan. To take an example, today I moved 86000 messages in a Maildir into separate subfolders by date. That took me about 5 minutes, but I spent 15 minutes beforehand creating the tarball of the entire maildir as a backup before I made any changes. In summary, root access isn't the problem - it makes no difference if I make that mistake on the rare occasion I do su or if I su routinely and make the mistake once - it's the mistake that is the problem and hence being careful and having backups is the best defence. > IOW, I'm very careful. > I won't say that I can't make mistakes, but I can say that after using > Linux as a secondary OS starting in about '98 and as my only OS since > Fedora 9 I've learned how to avoid almost all of them. I tend to regard > such things as simple, common prudence and expect the same from most of > the people on this list. I agree with you. I see so many incidents where my Customers have done an "rm -f . /" instead of "rm -rf ./" - simple checking your typing before hitting that mysterious enter key saves you from making the rookie mistakes. I have the experience to avoid them now, because this is what I do day in, day out, but I sympathise with people who make these errors simply because they lack my experience. > I found myself, more and more, > finding things obvious that nobody else understood or knew, simply > because none of the other techs had anywhere near my experience. > Considering how long I've been using Linux, this may well be simply > another case of my not realizing how different my experience level is > compared to the rest of the list. This is the same in any field. You need to routinely document your knowledge, so that in the inevitable "man under a car" incident (this actually happened to a co-worker), the knowledge survives. I've started documenting (after the fact) any helpful tips I pass on to a co-worker, simply because next time someone asks, I can point to that central resource instead of writing a full response. In time. searching that knowledgebase becomes first-nature for the newbies and I get less questions - so it has a selfish side ;o) -- Sam -- users mailing list users@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx To unsubscribe or change subscription options: https://admin.fedoraproject.org/mailman/listinfo/users Guidelines: http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Mailing_list_guidelines
