this post was submitted on 22 Mar 2024
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Linux

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Linux is a family of open source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991 by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically packaged in a Linux distribution (or distro for short).

Distributions include the Linux kernel and supporting system software and libraries, many of which are provided by the GNU Project. Many Linux distributions use the word "Linux" in their name, but the Free Software Foundation uses the name GNU/Linux to emphasize the importance of GNU software, causing some controversy.

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[–] [email protected] 63 points 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago) (9 children)

rm -rf ${var}/ is a disaster waiting to happen.

Always do rm -rf "${var:?}/" so that the script aborts if the variable is empty. Or better yet rm -rf "./${var:?}/".

Edited to add quotes. Always quote a path: it might have spaces in it, without quotes that will become multiple paths! Which would also have avoided the particular bug in question.

[–] [email protected] 18 points 8 months ago (3 children)

Is there not also a way to disallow empty variables in the script, I think it is set -u? Then you don't have to keep thinking "should I add a :? here because if empty it may lead to disaster" all the time. Might be even safer.

[–] [email protected] 27 points 8 months ago (1 children)

set -euo pipefail at the top of every script makes stuff a lot safer. Explanation here.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 8 months ago

Yep! I always do this too.

TL;DR: e aborts the whole script on a non-zero error. u aborts when using an undefined variable. -o pipefail aborts a piped compound command when one of the piped commands fail.

Any other way lies madness. Or erasing the whole filesystem apparently!

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