Question about sudo rm rf /

[Triangle Man]

I entered the infamous sudo rm rf / into the terminal based on a suggestion from a user on the apple forums. (By the way, never do this because it will erase your system)

However, once I noticed that all of my files started disappearing and my system was no longer responding, I aborted the command. I don't think it was done erasing my startup volume, but I obviously f'ed my system up. So here's my question. Does this command erase 1 volume at a time? I ask because my time machine drive was still connected when I ran the command, but I don't know if anything would've gotten erased from that since I stopped the command before my startup disk was empty.

So does that command erase 1 volume, then move onto the next and the next until they're all gone? If so, then I think I might still be able to use my time machine drive to restore all of my files.

 

[Weaselboy]

It would only erase the volume you ran it from. You should be able to option key boot to your TM disk and restore.

 

[Triangle Man]

It would only erase the volume you ran it from. You should be able to option key boot to your TM disk and restore.

I was under the impression that / meant the computer and all drives connected to it.

Well that gives me hope now. Thank you weaselboy.

 

[mojolicious]

Heh, this reminds me of del star dot starring my boss's PC about 25 years ago. Was trying to delete a floppy, but forgot to change from the C prompt...

 

[Triangle Man]

Well guys, I'm back! My Mac successfully restored from Time Machine and everything seems to be working great. So glad I backed up.

 

[mfram]

For the record, if your Time Machine backup drive were mounted and you waited long enough then the 'rm -rf /' would have deleted everything on that drive as well. So either it wasn't mounted or you stopped it soon enough.

 

[sjinsjca]

based on a suggestion from a user on the apple forums

Glad you recovered your system.

Now you need to hunt that guy down and make him wish he'd never been born.