Back when I originally dabbled with using Linux on a computer of my own, maybe around year 2003 or so, I didn’t know about rm -rf and was many years from being an adult as well. But I did know about /dev/null, and was really fascinated by the concept of the /dev/ directory!
So, I tried removing a file by
# cat filename > /dev/null
``` .
The nexttime I booted my computer, there was... An error message.
/dev/null: Not a file
From the perspective of a person who has now used Linux since 1998 (first with only user rights on my parents' computer) this sounds like an absolutely bonkers solution for that problem, but yeah: it's er-em-dash-rm-ef-slash level of error. And those do really happen. It's good to keep in mind what a n00b can be able to do!
Back when I originally dabbled with using Linux on a computer of my own, maybe around year 2003 or so, I didn’t know about rm -rf and was many years from being an adult as well. But I did know about /dev/null, and was really fascinated by the concept of the /dev/ directory!
So, I tried removing a file by
# cat filename > /dev/null ``` . The next time I booted my computer, there was... An error message./dev/null: Not a file
From the perspective of a person who has now used Linux since 1998 (first with only user rights on my parents' computer) this sounds like an absolutely bonkers solution for that problem, but yeah: it's er-em-dash-rm-ef-slash level of error. And those do really happen. It's good to keep in mind what a n00b can be able to do!