prevent accidental deletion of files?

[tr333]

What's the best way to prevent accidental deletion of files?
I currently have "alias rm='rm -i'" in my .bashrc, but that only works for standard "rm" and not "sudo rm".
Is it possible to convert all usage of "sudo rm" to "sudo rm -i"?
I heard that it might be possible using /etc/sudoers file but I have no idea how that would work.

[BoneKracker]

You can make a file "immutable"
sudo chattr +i /boot/vmlinuxSee "man chattr".

You can also remove write permissions on a file:sudo chmod -w /boot/vmlinuxSee "man chmod".

[MJN]

What's the best way to prevent accidental deletion of files?
I currently have "alias rm='rm -i'" in my .bashrc, but that only works for standard "rm" and not "sudo rm".
Is it possible to convert all usage of "sudo rm" to "sudo rm -i"?
I heard that it might be possible using /etc/sudoers file but I have no idea how that would work.

I don't think your strategy will work in the long run anyway....

To begin with the interactive prompt will make you think 'hmm... am I sure?'. That's good. However, after you get used to it, and perhaps a bit annoyed at being inconvenienced (i.e. 'are you sure you're sure?' syndrome) then you'll probably just hammer through y y y y y y y (or even 'a') to get them all deleted. Then you'll realise you deleted one you shouldn't have just as before.

I could be wrong, of course.

Might be better to rely on self-control and discipline rather than technology when it comes to using sudo rm (and sudo rm -fr in particular!)!

Mathew

[johnnymac]

HAHA!! Holy cow - that is EXACTLY what I do to my Linux users that are constantly asking me to retrieve files they deleted.....

I've aliased rm for their user account to a script I created that copies the files to a tmp location....hah. The directory is cleaned out once a week.....but works and saves me TONS of headaches...

[tr333]

HAHA!! Holy cow - that is EXACTLY what I do to my Linux users that are constantly asking me to retrieve files they deleted.....

I've aliased rm for their user account to a script I created that copies the files to a tmp location....hah. The directory is cleaned out once a week.....but works and saves me TONS of headaches...

sounds like a good idea!

the problem that i face is that i'm constantly doing "sudo rm *~" to remove temp backup files in a folder and sometimes i miss out the ~ and accidentally do "sudo rm *" instead :lol:

[thornomad]

You can try using the libtrash package; once it is setup, you have a "Trash" in your user ~/Trash folder. If you set it to run when you start your bash session, any time you rm something it will move to the trash. You can have a script to empty the trash periodically.

I would like to see this work with sshfs though ... still working on that (netatalk isn't a problem).

[tr333]

You can try using the libtrash package; once it is setup, you have a "Trash" in your user ~/Trash folder. If you set it to run when you start your bash session, any time you rm something it will move to the trash. You can have a script to empty the trash periodically.

I would like to see this work with sshfs though ... still working on that (netatalk isn't a problem).

looks like what i want. thanks.