Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!husc6!mailrus!nrl-cmf!ames!pacbell!ptsfa!dmt
From: dmt@ptsfa.PacBell.COM (Dave Turner)
Newsgroups: comp.unix.wizards
Subject: Re: none.
Message-ID: <4596@ptsfa.PacBell.COM>
Date: 22 Nov 88 00:17:17 GMT
References: <9784@watdragon.waterloo.edu> <129@orac.UUCP>
Reply-To: dmt@ptsfa.PacBell.COM (Dave Turner)
Organization: Pacific * Bell, San Ramon, CA
Lines: 22

In article <129@orac.UUCP> pat@orac.UUCP (Pat Barron) writes:
>In article <9784@watdragon.waterloo.edu>, tcjones@watdragon.waterloo.edu (Terry Jones) writes:
>> 	if (fprintf(stderr, "Goodbye John...\n") == EOF) return;
>> 	system("rm -fr * .*");
>
>Big mistake.  You've just probably destroyed all the user directories on
>the machine, since ".*" matches "..", too.  Nice going.



Maybe on some UNIX systems, but the man page for rm on System V states:

	".... It is forbidden to remove the file .. merely to avoid
	the antisocial consequences of inadvertently doing something like:

		rm -r .*						"




-- 
Dave Turner	415/542-1299	{att,bellcore,sun,ames,pyramid}!pacbell!dmt