[magila]

`rm -rf /` was never safe, even if reinstalling the system. If it worked for you then you were just lucky. In the context doing a reinstall you need to specify --one-file-system, but really you should just reformat the partition, it'll likely be much faster anyways.

[krylon]

On one episode of BSD Now[1], Bryan Cantrill tells how they made 'rm -rf /' not work on Solaris. It seems like a good idea in that they managed to stay compliant to POSIX while disarming that particular foot seeking-missile.

Or, in other words: I agree completely, in fifteen years I have never used 'rm -rf /', I always used mkfs to create fresh filesystem.

[1] http://www.bsdnow.tv/episodes/2015_08_19-ubuntu_slaughters_k...