What to do with the “rm -rf” hoax question

Basically a backup script that was supposedly run via Ansible on all servers, which mounted remote backup drives and then instead of pulling a fresh backup deleted everything including the mounted backup.

Question was then about recovery advice.

Re: What to do with the “rm -rf” hoax question

#5

Post by simula67 » Sun, Apr 17, 2016, 2:16 PM UTC

Kiro wrote: post #2

What was the hoax exactly?

This question http://serverfault.com/questions/587102/monday-morning-mista... was posted to server fault. It has since shown to be a marketing tactic ( http://www.repubblica.it/tecnologia/2016/04/15/news/cancella... ). The author did not delete his server, merely claimed to do so to get attention. Server fault community is now indignant about using their community ( which is for answering real questions ) as a deceptive marketing platform.

Re: What to do with the “rm -rf” hoax question

#6

Post by [deleted] » Sun, Apr 17, 2016, 2:20 PM UTC

Kiro wrote: post #2

What was the hoax exactly?

[deleted]

Re: What to do with the “rm -rf” hoax question

#7

Post by JoeAltmaier » Sun, Apr 17, 2016, 2:21 PM UTC

Does it matter that it didn't happen, if it could happen? Sounds like a serious issue.

Re: What to do with the “rm -rf” hoax question

#8

Post by colejohnson66 » Sun, Apr 17, 2016, 2:23 PM UTC

JoeAltmaier wrote: post #7

Does it matter that it didn't happen, if it could happen? Sounds like a serious issue.

My guess is because there's already a question about accidentally your whole system, which makes it a "dup". Not to mention, it _was_ a "viral" marketing campaign, and I'm sure the community isn't too happy about advertising disguised as legitimate questions.

Re: What to do with the “rm -rf” hoax question

#9

Post by nraynaud » Sun, Apr 17, 2016, 2:33 PM UTC

simula67 wrote: post #5

Kiro wrote: post #2

What was the hoax exactly?

This question http://serverfault.com/questions/587102/monday-morning-mista... was posted to server fault. It has since shown to be a marketing tactic ( http://www.repubblica.it/tecnologia/2016/04/15/news/cancella... ). The author did not delete his server, merely claimed to do so to get attention. Server fault community is now indignant about using their community ( which is for answering real questions ) as a decept…

> Server fault community is now indignant about using their community ( which is for answering real questions ) as a deceptive marketing platform.

...for someone else's gain. Remember that the majority of employees at SO are selling advertisement. It is a huge marketing platform (that I use heavily, don't get me wrong)

Re: What to do with the “rm -rf” hoax question

#10

Post by vilhelm_s » Sun, Apr 17, 2016, 2:34 PM UTC

JoeAltmaier wrote: post #7

Does it matter that it didn't happen, if it could happen? Sounds like a serious issue.

I guess part of the reason the hoax is annoying is that it usually couldn't happen. Recent versions of GNU coreutils rm will refuse to delete /, in order to avoid this kind of bug [1]. So if he was on a linux system like he described, his bug should not have had that effect. The question spreads misinformation (although a fairly harmless kind).

[1] This was added in 2006, apparently: http://git.savannah.gnu.org/cgit/coreutils.git/commit/?id=af...