this post was submitted on 22 Mar 2024
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    submitted 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago) by [email protected] to c/[email protected]
     

    Though the Windows thing was really funny ๐Ÿ˜‚.

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    [โ€“] [email protected] 95 points 8 months ago (3 children)

    the linux-file-deletion is used as a example for good software design. It has a very simple interface with little room for error while doing exactly what the caller intended.

    In John Ousterhout's "software design philosophy" a chapter is called "define errors out of existence". In windows "delete" is defined as "the file is gone from the HDD". So it must wait for all processes to release that file. In Linux "unlink" is defined as "the file can't be accessed anymore". So the file is gone from the filesystem immediately and existing file-handles from other processes will life on.

    The trade-off here is: "more errors for the caller of delete" vs "more errors due to filehandles to dead files". And as it turns out, the former creates issues for both developers and for users, while the later creates virtually no errors in practice.

    [โ€“] [email protected] 116 points 8 months ago (2 children)

    doing exactly what the caller intended.

    No, no. Exactly what the user told it to do. Not what they intended. There's a difference.

    [โ€“] [email protected] 36 points 8 months ago (2 children)

    Exactly type rm -rf / instead of rm -rf ./ and you ducked up. Well you messed up a long time ago by having privileges to delete everything, but then again, you are human, some mistakes will be made.

    [โ€“] [email protected] 35 points 8 months ago (3 children)

    Deleting the current directory via ./ seems contrived since you would just use . or more likely the directory name from outside the directory. What does happen is rm -rf ${FOO}/ while ${FOO} is an empty string.

    [โ€“] [email protected] 19 points 8 months ago

    Not sure if you're referencing the Steam incident, but Steam did exactly that: https://www.theregister.com/2015/01/17/scary_code_of_the_week_steam_cleans_linux_pcs/

    [โ€“] [email protected] 18 points 8 months ago (2 children)

    Even so, . and / are right next to each other so it's a likely typo. You might press enter before you catch it.

    [โ€“] [email protected] 1 points 8 months ago

    The double check before you rm things ๐Ÿคท.

    [โ€“] [email protected] 1 points 8 months ago

    ${Insert meme of qwertz ganz not having that problem here}

    [โ€“] [email protected] 5 points 8 months ago

    yup, did that one on a server at work. had to go cap in hand to my manager to get him to fix it

    [โ€“] [email protected] 17 points 8 months ago (1 children)

    Don't modern versions of rm block calling on / unless you pass a separate flag?

    [โ€“] [email protected] 4 points 8 months ago

    Yup I think it's --preserve-root

    [โ€“] [email protected] 3 points 8 months ago (2 children)

    Machines will always do what you tell them to do, as long as you do what they say.

    [โ€“] [email protected] 11 points 8 months ago

    do what they say

    [โ€“] [email protected] 1 points 8 months ago

    What do they say?

    [โ€“] [email protected] 7 points 8 months ago

    Yes, the file itself (so the data and inode) is not gone as long as the handles live on. Only the reference is gone. You canstill recover the file. https://superuser.com/questions/283102/how-to-recover-deleted-file-if-it-is-still-opened-by-some-process#600743

    [โ€“] [email protected] 3 points 8 months ago

    The trade-off here is: "more errors for the caller of delete" vs "more errors due to filehandles to dead files". And as it turns out, the former creates issues for both developers and for users, while the later creates virtually no errors in practice.

    Tell that to my dded porn collection.