Suggestions for post rm -rf /etc/*

[Danny Howard]

Glen Smith wrote:

>Anyone have a suggestion for fixing  a machine three states away after
>you rm -rf * dir/* inside of /etc or am I just screwed. I even had zsh
>ask me if that's what I really want to do. ::sob:: 
>  
>
Glen,

I'm glad this worked out for you.

I thought I might chime in that this is an excellent example of the idea 
that if something is broken on Unix "try rebooting" can often be a 
destructive solution.

I too once thought I had typed rm -rf /tmp/* late at night, then 
realised it was /etc/*!!  Copied the scripts over from another machine.  
This is a useful story to have for the occasional Interview Question, 
"tell me about a time when you messed up, and how you went about 
recovering from it."  The best answer is one of these situations where, 
by not panicking, you turn a lethal problem into an interesting triumph. :)

Cheers,
-danny

-- 
http://dannyman.toldme.com/