rm -rf $

millus · 04-16-2010, 06:06 AM

Hey,

i've mistyped while issuing the command rm -rf and instead of doing rm -rf * i used $.

now i have a big problem cause i can't use any commands like ls,cat,...

operating system: debian lenny

could you please help me out
EDIT:

weird thing is i have 2 terminals open to my server. On the one i issued the rm command it <<mod edit: "does not work correctly">>
but on the other one i can do all commands.

i'm not going to close my putty

greetings

GazL · 04-16-2010, 06:38 AM

I'm not aware of a $ on it's own having any special meaning in the shell, so I'm not sure exactly what you might have done here except for trying to recursively remove the file '$'.

What happens if you open a new 3rd terminal to the server? Does that one work?

millus · 04-16-2010, 07:00 AM

well i just did an apt-get update and upgrade
and he downloaded a whole lot of tools again (in my second terminal).

I hope it's nothing real bad but i'll try to close them down now and reconnect.

<<mod edit: "I'll be really annoyed">> if i can't issue any commands

GazL · 04-16-2010, 07:35 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by millus

damn would be f***** if i can't issue any commands

That's what backups are for.

BTW, I'm no prude but the use of the f-word really isn't appropriate on a public forum like this.

millus · 04-16-2010, 07:40 AM

yeah srry about that

i'm just panicking cause it's on a server, and it cost's time and money to reinstall it if i goes wrong.

i just installed it and set it up so i didn't backup anything yet

apperently rm -rf $ only damages the session your in cause after restarting all my putty terminals i found that there wasn't a problem anymore.

i wonder what it acctually does that command

greets

GazL · 04-16-2010, 07:47 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by millus

apperently rm -rf $ only damages the session your in cause after restarting all my putty terminals i found that there wasn't a problem anymore.

i wonder what it acctually does that command

As I said above, '$' on it's own has no special meaning to the shell so the rm -rf $ would have searched to find a file called '$' to delete, and there's unlikely to be one of that name.

Perhaps something else untoward happened to your current shell environment. Anyway, glad you suffered no real damage.

millus · 04-16-2010, 08:03 AM

yeah i'm glad too,

thank you for replying

greetings

pixellany · 04-16-2010, 08:26 AM

millus;
Good to see that you've already agreed to watch the language.....

Good luck.

millus · 04-17-2010, 04:23 AM

yeah srry about that

i've been visiting LQ for a long time now, i think for about 3-4 years. This is the first time i actually posted.

thx again for the help

devnull10 · 04-18-2010, 02:55 PM

Just on the subject of this, one to be very wary of is using shell variables with rm -rf. I know a guy who had many variables set up, $HOME, $MUSIC, $TMPFILES etc, pointing to various places...

So, he intended to delete say everything in $TMPFILES but he accidentally issued the following command: rm -rf $TMP_FILES/* as root!! I'm sure you can imagine the end result. oops!

($TMP_FILES was uninitialized).

John VV · 04-18-2010, 06:03 PM

well that will be the last time you use the " force " -f option with the recursive option -r

devnull10 · 04-19-2010, 06:02 AM

haha.

Thankfully it wasn't me and the person who did it was on a test system which didn't really matter if it was trashed. Had it been a production system I think it might have been a different story!