[CentOS] In A UEFI World, "rm -rf /" Can Brick Your System

Mon Feb 1 20:47:40 UTC 2016
Richard Zimmerman <rzimmerman at riverbendhose.com>

>> Excerpt:
>> Running rm -rf / on any UEFI Linux distribution can potentially perma-brick your system.
>
> "And they closed the ticket"? That tuxedo on the cockroach is so elegent!
> Ok, *now* tell me why we shouldn't hate systemd?
>       mark

As much as I don't like systemd, it has NOTHING to do with system and everything to a poor admin or newbie blindly following others advice. 

My suggestion is to ALWAYS fully qualify *ANY* directory you want to rm -rf, period. 

I speak from experience. Years ago had a script that would cd into a directory and then rm - rf * it. Problem started when I accidently deleted said dir and the PREVIOUS dir was /. Needless to say, the server was happily committing suicide before I figured out the problem.

Lessons learned:
1. Fully qualify ANY rm -rf command
2. Make sure you always have good backups, I did!
3. I became really, really good at disaster recovery :)
4. Upper Management WILL get cranky over an event like this!

Just my 2 cents worth...

Richard


---
Richard Zimmerman
Systems / Network Administrator
River Bend Hose Specialty, Inc.
1111 S Main Street
South Bend, IN   46601-3337
(574) 233-1133
(574) 280-7284 Fax