Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!uunet!philmtl!philabs!ttidca!hollombe
From: hollombe@ttidca.TTI.COM (The Polymath)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Subject: Re: rm *
Message-ID: <9081@ttidca.TTI.COM>
Date: 17 Jan 90 01:54:53 GMT
References: <11781@goofy.megatest.UUCP> <1540@castle.ed.ac.uk> <11037@ucsd.Edu>
Reply-To: hollombe@ttidcb.tti.com (The Polymath)
Organization: The Cat Factory
Lines: 29

In article <11037@ucsd.Edu> brian@ucsd.edu (Brian Kantor) writes:
}On an old sun workstation (a 100/U which is still running, thank you
}very much) I once typed rm -rf / & (God, it hurts just to type that in a
}news article!) and realized the error about 10 uSec after hitting the
}return key.  Yanking the power plug out of the wall stopped it before it
}had a chance to write the updated buffers to disk and it suffered no
}loss at all.
}
}I, on the other hand, had a severe laundry problem.

I once did the equivalent on a PDP-11/70 (upgraded from 45) running
RSTS/E.  After a particularly long edit session, I slipped and entered a
DEL * (or equivalent -- 'twas long ago).

The only file in my directory was the one and only copy of my (nearly
completed) master's thesis. )-:

After staring at the screen in horror for about 3 seconds I desperately
hit a control-C. (That would stop just about anything under RSTS/E).  To
my amazement, the delete process stopped.  To my relief, I only had to
retype the first 5 pages of my thesis (from hard copy).

Then I went home, lay down and shook for three hours. (-:

-- 
The Polymath (aka: Jerry Hollombe, hollombe@ttidca.tti.com)  Illegitimis non
Citicorp(+)TTI                                                 Carborundum
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