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by nneonneo 1336 days ago
The version with the tilde character is worse! At least with the bare slash, some versions of rm will simply refuse to run (they require --no-preserve-root). Plus, even if it works, “rm -rf /“ is likely to start at something like /bin and spew a ton of errors unless you use sudo, giving you ample time to abort before it starts wiping the stuff you care about in /home, /usr, etc.

On the other hand, with the tilde, it will just start wiping your personal files right away and will probably not run into any permission errors.
1 comments
computomatic 1336 days ago 

   $ git clone git@github.com:dotfiles '$HOME'
   Cloning into '$HOME'...
   *ugh...*
   
   $ rm -rf $HOME
   *wait...*

   $ cd $HOME
   cd: no such file or directory: /Users/admin
   *fuuuuuuuu*
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