begin quoting Ralph Shumaker as of Fri, Apr 06, 2007 at 11:12:29PM -0700: [snip] > Granted, but given the potential for destruction from that command, one > would think that the command invoked with those switches would caution > the human when invoked on "/" or even a first level directory before > poceeding.
Computers should be boxes that do what you tell them to, not boxes that argue with you. :) > At least one would think that --preserve-root would be on by default. > Further, one would think that this switch would also protect first level > directories at least. This way lies madness. Well, maybe not madness, but a complicated inconsistency; I do NOT want to remember that if I type "rm -rf /scratch" I need to feed a prompt, but not when I type "rm -rf /scratch/foo". It's been said that UNIX does not keep you from doing stupid things because that would keep you from doing clever things. Plus, people would get used to it, in time, and if they haven't been trained to be careful, they will make it a habit. I have a problem with elm and mutt, for example, where my fingers will automatically confirm an action without consulting my brain. In general, stupid little are-you-sure prompts have never, to my recollection, prevented me from screwing up in a tool that I have used for more than a year. -- I think pop-to-front dialog boxes are a bad idea as well. Stewart Stremler -- [email protected] http://www.kernel-panic.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/kplug-list
