[TriLUG] A funny thing happened

[That One Guy]

On Friday 25 January 2002 03:12 pm, Andrew Perrin wrote:
> On Fri, 25 Jan 2002, M. Mueller (bhu5nji) wrote:
> > On Friday 25 January 2002 02:05 pm, you wrote:
> > > On Fri, 25 Jan 2002, M. Mueller (bhu5nji) wrote:
> > > > rm -fr ~
> > > >
> > > > Here's the funny part.  I meant to enter:
> > > >
> > > > rm -fr ./~
> > > >
> > > > "Golly," I thought to myself as I began to fully appreciate what that
> > > > command had gone and done, "that sure is a powerful command."  It had
> > > > completely erased my user directory contents.  I was laughing at my
> > > > mistake while I reloaded MDK8.1 twice and setup my mail accounts
> > > > again.
> > >
> > > Ummm... why do you need to reinstall the OS because you deleted
> > > user-space files?
> >
> > Too stupid to know how to get back configurations files and <looks down
> > and kicks dirt> I didn't have a back up.
>
> Sorry if this is beating a dead horse, but I wouldn't expect configuration
> files to be generated in user space by an OS install; I'd think you would
> just re-run the application for the "first" time or take whatever other
> steps are involved in initial configuration. Doesn't an rm -fr ~ just make
> you effectively a new user?

That user wouldn't have a home directory until someone re-created it and got 
the directory permissions right.  Actually, the easiest thing to do at that 
point would probably be just userdel and useradd the user.  That would create 
the home directory properly with .bashrc and such.

>
> Not that backups are a bad thing :)....
>

Oh backups are definately encouraged!  ;-)

TOG

-- 
That One Guy (TM)			trilug at ichi.net