Re: How to become very unpopular. (or:) A scary story.

[Thomas Hood <jdthood@yahoo.co.uk>]

> On Thu, Aug 16, 2001 at 10:53:31PM +0300, Richard Braakman wrote:
> > On Thu, Aug 16, 2001 at 01:56:02PM -0400, Thomas Hood wrote:
> > > 3. Add a space after "ROOTDIR=/"
> > > 4. Release to unwary users
> > 
> > An easy way to prevent problems of this sort is to specify all directory
> > variables without trailing slashes.  This makes using them more natural, too.
> > Example:
> > 
> > > ROOTDIR=
> > > LIBDIR=$(ROOTDIR)/usr/lib
> > >
> > > install:
> > >       mkdir $(LIBDIR)/foo
> > >       cp -p lib/foo* $(LIBDIR)/foo/
> > >
> > > uninstall:
> > >       rm -rf $(LIBDIR)
> 
> 
> also notice that this example will rm -rf /usr/lib ;-)

Yes, the line should have been "rm -rf $(LIBDIR)foo".  Obviously
I didn't test my code very well.  ;)  But the error just amplifies
my point.  We run these developer-provided scripts as root, and even
in the absence of malicious intent it is possible for little mistakes
to creep in that can cause an great deal of damage.

Thomas