• Smug Unix User (unregistered)

    Most quick fixes become long term solutions.

  • Sheriff Fatman (unregistered)

    Aw, I was hoping that his tiny little waffer-thin app would end up bringing the server down, or multiplying inconsistencies exponentially, or something.

  • JO (unregistered)

    Nothing is more permanent than temporary fixes :)

  • Czenda (unregistered)

    "I wonder how many people it took to tell this story."

  • Garrison Fiord (unregistered) in reply to Czenda
    Czenda:
    "I wonder how many people it took to tell this story."
    +1
  • Garrison Fiord (unregistered) in reply to Garrison Fiord
    "Garrison Fiord":
    "Czenda":
    "I wonder how many people it took to tell this story."
    "+1"
    FTFM
  • Schmitter (unregistered)

    "I wonder what will happen, years in the future, when someone takes the system apart for an overhaul and discovers the 'quick fix' still running."

    They will post it here.

  • Andrew (unregistered)
    "I wonder what will happen, years in the future, when it takes more than 5 minutes for the 'quick fix' script to run."
    FTFY.
  • AGray (unregistered) 
    sudo rm -rf /*

    Boom...nuked hard drive

  • Pista (unregistered) in reply to Andrew
    Andrew:
    "I wonder what will happen, years in the future, when it takes more than 5 minutes for the 'quick fix' script to run."
    FTFY.

    Well, that day somebody's gonna get hurt reeeeeeal bad...

  • Polar Bear (unregistered) in reply to Pista

    They will "fix" it by having it run every ten minutes.

  • Delve (unregistered) in reply to Schmitter

    And we will chuckle about it. Again.

  • Stephan (unregistered) in reply to Schmitter

    ehehe brilliant remark :)

  • DonaldK (unregistered)

    Every single line of code is a legacy line of code.

    As programmers we're very lucky if we see that line of code survive for more than 5 years.

    We're even MORE lucky if that line of code survives for a much shorter period...

  • uns (unregistered) in reply to AGray
    AGray:
    sudo rm -rf /*

    Boom...nuked hard drive

    YOU DON'T SAY!

  • R. E. Hunter (unregistered)

    As we used to say, "Nothing so permanent as a temporary fix."

  • Andrew (unregistered) in reply to DonaldK
    DonaldK:
    Every single line of code is a legacy line of code.

    As programmers we're very lucky if we see that line of code survive for more than 5 years.

    We're even MORE lucky if that line of code survives for a much shorter period...

    You must be lucky to work somewhere that refactors its code. Or I'm lucky to work at places that have loads of tech debt and doesn't care or can't afford to redo any of it. No one minds features that are sorta broken but still work.
  • RFmich (unregistered)

    ""I wonder what will happen, years in the future, when someone takes the system apart for an overhaul and discovers the 'quick fix' still running.""

    So that's what that was for.

  • Kent (unregistered)

    Wouldn't it be awesome if every pile of dust we swept under the rug would would magically evaporate and make room for the next pile? I'd sweep a lot more often!

  • Quality Porpoise (unregistered) in reply to Kent
    Kent:
    Wouldn't it be awesome if every pile of dust we swept under the rug would would magically evaporate and make room for the next pile? I'd sweep a lot more often!

    Entirely true for certain values of "magically evaporate" and "make room".

  • (cs)

    It's all about the user experience. User inputs data, witchcraft happens, user gets feedback from system. If it's not what they wanted, it's broken. If it is what they wanted, it works. Simple as that. Doesn't matter how ugly the solution is.

  • Dave (unregistered)

    I tried that sudo command in this linux computer.

    dave@hal:~$ sudo rm -rf /*
[sudo] password for dave:
I am afraid I can't let you do that, dave.

    wtf?

  • Nemo (unregistered) in reply to Dave
    Dave:
    I tried that sudo command in this linux computer. 
    dave@hal:~$ sudo rm -rf /*
[sudo] password for dave:
I am afraid I can't let you do that, dave.

    wtf?

    You have to manually remove the memory chips from the central data bank.

  • Ben Jammin (unregistered)

    Some time in the future... "Server's bogged down, Johnson. Clean off everything we don't need." "hmm... RobsAmazingQuickFix_DoNotDelete.exe? Sounds like some spyware that I'd better remove." Deleted

  • YourName (unregistered) in reply to Andrew
    Andrew:
    DonaldK:
    Every single line of code is a legacy line of code.

    As programmers we're very lucky if we see that line of code survive for more than 5 years.

    We're even MORE lucky if that line of code survives for a much shorter period...

    You must be lucky to work somewhere that refactors its code. Or I'm lucky to work at places that have loads of tech debt and doesn't care or can't afford to redo any of it. No one minds features that are sorta broken but still work.

    Well in the case of the article, I don't see what's so hard about refactoring ASP into ASP.NET. You just rename everything from *.asp to *.aspx, right? ;-)

  • asdf (unregistered) in reply to Schmitter

    I would have fired you after the linux mis-hap and again for the quick fix

  • (cs)

    This is 1 of my favorite words ^__^

    Makeshift: Sufficient for the time being.

  • (cs) in reply to AGray
    AGray:
    sudo rm -rf /*

    Boom...nuked hard drive

    And it's a brave superuser who does "!rm"

  • Annie (unregistered) in reply to Schmitter
    Schmitter:
    "I wonder what will happen, years in the future, when someone takes the system apart for an overhaul and discovers the 'quick fix' still running."

    They will post it here.

    In fact, I expect that story to be posted Tomorrow.

    Captcha: Duis - first I want you to duis, then duthat.

  • Craash420 (unregistered)

    "I wonder why every paragraph has quotation marks."

  • Tom (unregistered) in reply to AGray
    AGray:
    sudo rm -rf /*
    Please! It is cryptic misinformation like this that gives Linux the undeserved reputation of being hard to understand and use. The following, much simpler incantation, is just as effective:
    sudo rm -rf /
    It also avoids the processor overhead of interpreting that '*'.
  • Jack (unregistered) in reply to Tom
    Tom:
    AGray:
    sudo rm -rf /*
    Please! It is cryptic misinformation like this that gives Linux the undeserved reputation of being hard to understand and use. The following, much simpler incantation, is just as effective:
    sudo rm -rf /
    It also avoids the processor overhead of interpreting that '*'.
    To help ensure things don't get out of sync, put it in a cron job to run every 5 minutes.
  • Larry (unregistered) in reply to Craash420
    Craash420:
    "I wonder why every paragraph has quotation marks."
    "Because," I posted, "the article is quoting something somebody submitted. For once," I added, "the story hasn't been Bowytzd."
  • Bananas (unregistered) in reply to Roby McAndrew
    Roby McAndrew:
    AGray:
    sudo rm -rf /*

    Boom...nuked hard drive

    And it's a brave superuser who does "!rm"

    And it's a really super superuser who can type "!rm" into a shell that's no longer there courtesy of the first rm.

  • (cs) in reply to Craash420
    Craash420:
    "I wonder why every paragraph has quotation marks."

    Probably because he was too lazy to make his own story out of this, and used this to make sure people understood he hadn't.

    I guess there's a reason they want more authors, right? :P

  • vereor (unregistered) in reply to Evo
    Evo:
    Craash420:
    "I wonder why every paragraph has quotation marks."

    Probably because he was too lazy to make his own story out of this, and used this to make sure people understood he hadn't.

    I guess there's a reason they want more authors, right? :P

    Then what the fuck is this:

    http://thedailywtf.com/Contact.aspx

    "I get about ten submissions a day. I post once a day and only on weekdays."

    Then, where the fuck are those articles?! If you get 10 each day, there should be at least one that's good. All you post lately is crap's crap.

  • jay (unregistered) in reply to JO
    JO:
    Nothing is more permanent than temporary fixes :)

    Except for temporary taxes.

  • jay (unregistered)

    I came across an article on the web that said that many more recent releases of Linux have an explicit check for "rm -r /" and will display an error message rather than demolish the system.

    Try it on your system and see if your version of Linux has this safety feature.

  • (cs) in reply to jay
    jay:
    I came across an article on the web that said that many more recent releases of Linux have an explicit check for "rm -r /" and will display an error message rather than demolish the system.

    Try it on your system and see if your version of Linux has this safety feature.

    I have an Ubuntu VM I'm not using for anything else. I might just do that

    Edit:

    rm: it is dangerous to operate recursively on `/' rm: use --no-preserve-root to override this failsafe

    I thought you were trolling. Please forgive me

  • Unicorn #8157 (unregistered) in reply to jaloopa

    rm -rf / That does give a warning message.

    rm -rf /* That does not.

    (FC14)

  • Smee (unregistered)

    I never got burned with 

    rm -fr /
    as a new intern.

    I did manage to (reversibly) brick a server by running 

    gzip /lib/libc.so

    [b]oops[/]

  • Sudofed (unregistered) in reply to AGray
    AGray:
    sudo rm -rf /*

    Boom...nuked hard drive

    And people rubbish Windows for having built-in protection for system files: after all, you might want to self-destruct the server as part of your routine maintenance chores and who is Microsoft to try and stop you?

  • Madoc (unregistered)

    I'm not so sure. If the quick fix works, also for longer times, why not keep it?

  • Ralph (unregistered) in reply to Sudofed
    Sudofed:
    And people rubbish Windows for having built-in protection for system files: after all, you might want to self-destruct the server as part of your routine maintenance chores and who is Microsoft to try and stop you?
    This comes down to a matter of principle. There are 10 (binary) types of people:

    00: My computer is smarter than me. I want it to override my decisions and do whatever it thinks is best.

    01: I am smarter than my computer. I want it to do whatever I command.

    Linux is not for L00sers and Windows is not for W01nners. Pick whatever you like. It isn't like anyone else is going to care.

  • Joe (unregistered) in reply to Bananas
    Bananas:
    Roby McAndrew:
    AGray:
    sudo rm -rf /*

    Boom...nuked hard drive

    And it's a brave superuser who does "!rm"

    And it's a really super superuser who can type "!rm" into a shell that's no longer there courtesy of the first rm.

    Nearly everything needed for the system to run is already cached or is held open and won't actually be deleted.

    https://groups.google.com/d/msg/alt.sysadmin.recovery/F4-k-pDufnk/CkEoxpI5e3cJ for an example.

    --Joe

  • Carl (unregistered) in reply to Ralph
    Ralph:
    00: My computer is smarter than me. I want it to override my decisions and do whatever it thinks is best.
    Well, perhaps you aren't smart enough to make that decision either. In which case perhaps you don't deserve a computer at all.

    This is why every computer should come with some short incantation which, if spoken by a non-wizard, provides an educational experience by turning the universe inside out and running time backwards or something like that.

  • Frank (unregistered) in reply to Joe
    Joe:
    Bananas:
    Roby McAndrew:
    AGray:
    sudo rm -rf /*

    Boom...nuked hard drive

    And it's a brave superuser who does "!rm"

    And it's a really super superuser who can type "!rm" into a shell that's no longer there courtesy of the first rm.

    Nearly everything needed for the system to run is already cached or is held open and won't actually be deleted.

    https://groups.google.com/d/msg/alt.sysadmin.recovery/F4-k-pDufnk/CkEoxpI5e3cJ for an example.

    --Joe

    Or, you can always type "oops".

    Sorry, make that "sudo oops".

  • (cs) in reply to Craash420
    Craash420:
    "I wonder why every paragraph has quotation marks."
    Because it's meant ironically.
  • (cs) in reply to vereor

    Assuming that this is not mere trolling...

    vereor:
    Alex Papadimoulis:
    "I get about ten submissions a day. I post once a day and only on weekdays."
    Then, where the fuck are those articles?! If you get 10 each day, there should be at least one that's good. All you post lately is crap's crap.
    If you post even one comment per day, it should at least be a good one, instead of "crap's crap".

    This is a free service, kindly provided by Alex when and as he has time, which sometimes does not equal 5/week.

    Also, what counts as "good" is subjective.

    Also also, if he selects the best of the day, but that day's submissions are largely crap, then he either has to post a mediocre article (pissing off those who think they have a right to demand high quality), or he must decide not to post anything (pissing off those who think they have a right to demand exactly 5/week).

    Get a life, vereor.

  • Norman Diamond (unregistered) in reply to Tom
    Tom:
    AGray:
    sudo rm -rf /*
    Please! It is cryptic misinformation like this that gives Linux the undeserved reputation of being hard to understand and use.
    True but irrelevant. MS-DOS didn't exist yet when Unix's inventors designed rm and -rf and /*, and the syntax of IEHPROGM was even uglier.
    Tom:
    The following, much simpler incantation, is just as effective:
    sudo rm -rf /
    It also avoids the processor overhead of interpreting that '*'.
    .wrong .it_is_not_just_as_effective,_it_is_worse

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