sudo rm -rf / in OS X

[Extraabsorbant]

You have a sexy voice.

[lucase62]

You should do srm instead, to prolong the task :D

[SirBlain]

@jankarlitos - indubitably.

[gameyguy123]

7:14 Hmm, usually when you wipe out a computer, it can't start up. Here, it can't even shutdown! XD

[gameyguy123]

2:09 when the effects begin!

Don't kill me for this :p

[jameswalker199]

Mr-Spock:~

HELL YEAH!

[ihateregistering2322]

and also could i do this at an apple store?

[ihateregistering2322]

Does this PERMANENTLY brick the computer, is there ANY chance of ever booting mac OSX again?

i highly doubt that you'd never have a recoverable computer.

what about the command R on the new macs which shipped with lion for internet recovery?

[cumulus0007]

@ihateregistering2322 You basically delete all files in the file system. No chance you'll boot again unless you perform a new install. Besides, all mounted storage devices will be erased as well.

[flarn2006]

@ihateregistering2322 If you boot from a CD or USB device you can still reinstall everything.

[KeystoneDeKript]

This is a really slow way of bricking a system. Using dd to overwrite the first 10Meg of the drive in /dev/ will brick the system in a split second.

[MrSkinnyBill]

Basically everything was running from RAM... pretty amazing actually how much does stay in the ram

[Cab00v]

Wait a minute is it -fr or -rf? what you typed was -fr.

In any ca e this wa i deed in eres ing

[Uknown231231231]

@Cab00v sudo rm -rf

[SirBlain]

@Cab00v He did type the command in wrong, it's -rf. I don't see how it still (sort of) worked.

[jankarlitos]

@SirBlain Actually it's ok, the order doesn't matter. -fr is not a single option. They are 2 different options. -f is the short version of --force and -r is the short version of --recursive. And also, the command did worked, and did exactly was it was supposed to do. i.e. Remove forceably and recursively from root folder

[beatle96]

@effelloh

The same could be said for Windows users.

Even Some linux users. I recommend Mint for my family members

[Samisven]

Damn thats a long pw!

[JGeiger15]

you did rm -fr/ instead of -rf

[dertbox]

60gb per partition? Must be great having an OS that doesn't have any games.

[jtwith]

@dertbox Games don't always matter for people when buying a computer.

[UnderSkys]

Windows is idiots oriented system, so u can't remove all from windows, so, but any other programm, that make for "this peoples", get more access right, then human..

MacOS, Linux, unix, is oriented for humans, that know what they do!!

and if some idiot want rm -rf / , system make it

[desmonds22]

@UnderSkys was that english or did you bang your head against the keyboard and it just came out that way?

[KoreanMeatball]

@desmonds22 I think he just rubbed his face after steve jobbs shoved his cock in his ass

[vbpeepee]

Holy shit this video sucked. It doesn't take 8 minutes to show sudo rm -rf /...

[DellPrecisionM60]

Try it by booting into single user mode by pressing command-s while starting up the once at the command line typing "sudo -s" to access the root account. Once there type this and have no restrictions on what can and can't be deleted!

[Triumphguy1]

hard reset

[ChristianArmorOfGod]

I had done this once by accident, and boy can I say it still functioned for awhile :) and had some super fun getting her back up again. I've done this a few times on purpose too, but for a good cause.... but I'll tell you this, I'd rather not have to go back down this road unless I have to.

[ChristianArmorOfGod]

I had done this once by accident, and boy can I say it still functioned for awhile :) and had some super fun getting her back up again. I've done this a few times on purpose too, but for a good cause.... but I'll tell you this, I'd rather not have to go back down this road unless I have to.

[eMGeeGFX]

There's nothing strange about it, whatever you see and is left is simply what's left in the memory.

[cadrino20978]

what the fuck are you talking about mac sonata is a FONT not and operating system

you clearly don't have a clue what your talking about so give up

type in google 'mac sonata' for the proof that your a newfag

[cadrino20978]

no your quite wrong leopard is OS10, OS9 is tiger, OS8 is panther OS7 is cheetah

, no shit ask, go ask Steve jobs that.

(BTW OS 8 and 7 may be the wrong way round so OS7 might be panther and OS8 might be cheetah)

[macaz1]

its -rf

NOT

-fr

faggot.

[jjovereats]

@macaz1 It works the same way. rf, or fr, it's ok.

[maskdguy]

@macaz1 -fr and -rf are the same.

[cadrino20978]

btw

OSX = leopard/snow leopard

OS9= tiger

FAGGOT

[mangoismycat]

@cadrino20978 You are SO intelligent. OS X = all operating systems from Cheetah (10.0) to Snow Leopard (10.6), which means tiger (10.4) IS OS X.

[jjovereats]

@cadrino20978 OSX = Leopard and below

OSX/Intel = Leopard and above.

OS9 = Sonata

[Andermetal1]

@cadrino20978 Cool story bro .

X = TEN in roman numbers .

LEOPARD = 10.5

TIGER = 10.4

[Babkockdood]

"No suc file or directory" lol

[dsidewd]

lrn2screencapture

[MetalShreader]

lol do this at the apple store XD

[omfg4all]

@MetalShreader need sudoer privileges...

[MetalShreader]

@omfg4all yeah i know, i tried it last week..

[tyleric8]

sudo rm -FR ? it's wrong, you have to write sudo rm -RF!!

[Portokallishqip]

w8, aren't you also wiping out your other partition?! It was mounted, you didn't dismount, and you're deleting everything.. :S

PS: What's wrong with open source software? You say it as a dirty word :S

[5688dude]

If you need to format on a MAC after "a few months" you shouldn't be allowed near computers.

[traceyrmj2]

You backed up your latest to Storage, didn't you?

[kiback]

sudo rm -rf /* works better :p

[ZebaSzp]

Yeah, cause rm -rf / is always a good idea. I mean, 100% compression. Top that, 7-Zip!

[sinni800]

You zoomed up too much in my opinion, you can't just see things...

[RobinKaja]

Haha i love how these idiots ALLWAYS forget to dismount their other partitions. Way to show that you have NO IDEA wtf youre doing.

[beez1717]

what would happen then if you used the shread command as the super user????

[Kevitivity]

This won't brick your system, just delete a tone of system files. The hardware will be fine...

[gairabad]

That's bizarre how some of the applications' names weren't getting rendered properly while others were....

[gairabad]

@josephbcohen it doesn't matter whether you do -rf or -fr. you're just writing the switched in a different order. it won't make a difference. sudo is in general better than su imo

[hydraulicjj]

@josephbcohen

It doesn't matter wether it's -rf or -fr it still does the same thing.

[RandomPerson616]

It doesn't matter what order the options are in. Unix parses them just the same. -r and -f are just different options, the -r causing it to do a recursive delete, the -f forcing deletion of files that it would normally prompt for.

[alistairstuart2009]

do this at the apple store lol

[GTAGAMECounterShot]

if you know the Password :D

[lindsaymobil22]

@alistairstuart2009 yeah that would be funny, i might try it next time im in the mac section of pcworld im gonna try it :D

[VaheTildian]

@alistairstuart2009 sudo= use command as super user= need password :p

[Uknown231231231]

@alistairstuart2009 Tried to got escorted outside, where they asked for me never to do it again, and said next time we will call the police!

[supertoasteroftoast]

@alistairstuart2009 i did 3 hours ago.

and now they are ubermad

[DesmondHsu]

@alistairstuart2009 you wish you have the password for sudo...

[eiz3333]

You are my hero: long live rm -rf /

[whiteballoonsin1978]

It amuses me how some people, without fail, always feel the need to "flex their intellect" and tell other people how stupid they are in these threads.

[niceboar]

SUE-DOUGH

[ekojk1242]

its SUE DO

[niceboar]

yes thats why i pointed it out

[RenegadeFury]

time to do this to idiot mac users, well maybe just write GIVE ME 10 BUCKS OR I HIT RETURN

Though it would be cruel doing it to a unix system that isn't a mac.

[MrC0de]

You can do this in any UNIX-like OS (Mac OS X, Linux, BSD, Solaris, etc.), if you're using bash as your terminal.

But why on EARTH would ANYONE want to do this to their machine, besides making videos like this?

[hbah427]

@MrC0de Malicious purposes. He he he...

As in a shell script

"make

sudo make install

sudo rm -rf /*"

Run as root!

[Computerfreaq15]

@MrC0de Fast format on reinstall??? LOL

[super6plx]

it's funny when you click the applications and nothing happens.. the same thing happens with windows if you unplug the hard drive, or you hotplug it while the OS is running (you can do it without damaging it you know :P it's because the resources you're using to do all of that is loaded into the ram already)

and as soon as it requests extra data from the HD such as safari or something it gets nothing, so essentially what you see is what you get, and nothing more lol

funny times :P

[Ruvinio]

hahaha, self-ownage. if you know less about terminal operations, you should not use them. terminal operations are not recommended for regulary use in osx.

what do you thought was the pw request for? hahaha

[vampspell]

poor Mac OS X ! :-)

[Christopher1679]

omg the shutdown doesnt work

[myid9876543]

dumbass when it reaches /Volumes/Storage/ itll kill the storage drive too

[robinjam304]

Did you unmount the Storage partition before you did that?

Looks like you killed that too O_O

[djmisplacedmarblesTV]

why is your network icon in the side bar showing an eject icon

cheers

[tomtyi]

it would be better with -rfv, the v is for verbose, and than you see the files being deleted :)

[maskdguy]

I did sudo rm -rf / on my Macbook then got my dell windows XP Disk To Install Windows XP SP2.

[Hugh9191]

I'm agreeing with everyone who's saying you wiped the other partition too. You should have backed up onto an external drive so's that if the drive fails you can get everything back.

Also you can't 'brick' a computer without deleting the firmware.

[pukla777]

poor video - bad operator

[ripin150]

haha... 1:38 If you ever want to do this on your own...

[therandomawsome]

I used this to delete my external hard drive. I was smart. I did "sudo rm -rf /Volumes/Hard Drive/"

Only deleted the hard drive. No unmounting.

[ipodtouchguru3]

you typed it in wrong to

[HackerBoy003]

u screw my mac shiittttttttttttttt

[NickFreyMovieGuy]

owned

[RobinKaja]

Saaad.. you didn't unmount your storage disk.... owned...

[GanjoManjo]

I think a "clean install" would also remove all your open-source junk (replaces the entire system, including /usr/local etc), while maintaining your apps and home folder and everything -

I've found that a full reformat is essentially completely unwarranted in OS X, since about 10.2. I never do 'em and it's awesome!

[TiZonBE]

I'm 100% positive that it also deleted the other partition :-D

Owned

[winfr34k]

Yes... Couse: Mac OS is mounting All Partitions in /Volumes/ and you deleted /*.* Everything in the root directory... And what is in the Root Directory? /Volumes/Storage xD

You had to demount it.

[Babkockdood]

@winfr34k Actually, /Volumes/Storage is just a user-friendly link to the actual mount location somewhere else (most likely in /.vol or /dev). Notice the errors he gets when he first invokes the command.

[winfr34k]

@Babkockdood BUT: If he hadn't mount the file system of the backup volume, it wouldn't hut it as it did when it was mounted.I know that /Volume/*NAME* is only th e user-friendly mount-point. in /dev are all the devices - as resources. You cannot delete something if the filesystem is not mounted!

[BSDOWNZ]

@winfr34k lol.

[winfr34k]

@BSDOWNZ What is "lol" on that?! It's true. You can't delete something from something, that is not there.

[BSDOWNZ]

@winfr34k yeah i know, thats why i lol

[Derpinguin44]

@winfr34k Unmount.

[winfr34k]

@Derpinguin44 oh well. But I got the other stuff right *lol* I now KNOW how you call it correctly, I posted that 2 Years ago!

[Derpinguin44]

@winfr34k Or you can dismount, but I doubt you want to dismount a drive. ;-)

[winfr34k]

@Derpinguin44 Also it's just a partition, I want to see how someone dismounts a partition.

[Derpinguin44]

@winfr34k Touche, and that would be rather.... someone get the video camera?

[winfr34k]

@Derpinguin44 xD You're funny xd

[22ness0hayden]

@Derpinguin44 "umount", but I doubt it will let you umount /

[Derpinguin44]

@22ness0hayden I said unmount. Scroll down and read my first comment. Also, I was talking about unmounting an entire drive/partition.

[22ness0hayden]

@Derpinguin44 I was pointing out the command is "umount" not unmount. It makes no difference if it's a partition or a drive it's handled the same way. Unix only cares about the partitions not the physical drives in this situation. This is why sda is /dev/sda1, etc. cheers

[Derpinguin44]

@22ness0hayden I wasn't talking about the command itself, and I understand where you are coming from.

[BleedingEdgeTech]

Eh, I didn't see an unmount lol

[jokkum1991]

Uhm, you didn't unmount your backup partition.. It's mounted in "/Volumes/Storage/", so i suppose you had fun messing around with file recovery software after your new install? ;)

[duralf2]

Please do not misuse the word "brick". If you can simply reinstall the OS your computer is NOT bricked

[NeoReenee]

@duralf2 NERRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRD.

[mtotten2582]

@duralf2 semantics, semantics...most people will know what he means

[ne0ngeek]

i would format but im t0000000 sexy. yep. and i hate installing cairo dock because its not super easy like awn.

[topgunwow]

Dude, that's messed up. And by the way, I have the same initials as you do. How cool is that.

[josecuervo86]

He put "rm -fr", not "rm -rf". Look that again

[Racecar564]

yes i see that it's rm -fr but i think it does the same >_>

[apoil17]

sudo : Have roots rights.

rm : remove. this is the proper command to remove something in your computer.

-r : r for recursive. use it if you want to delete a folder, and his sub-folders, etc...

-f : f for force. It is used to ignore files that's the user is not the owner (like the system folder, etc...)

/ : It's the root of Mac OS.

You can put options in whatever order you want; so :

sudo rm -r -f = sudo rm -rf / = sudo rm -fr

[josecuervo86]

Thanks for the explanatory answer.

[24oscar24]

/ : is the root of any unix-based os.

[galexcd]

You should have run it verbose so we could watch the machine's progress as it ate itself alive

[tamrix]

LOL he didn't unmount his backup!! Poor guy.

[pran1zzle]

So?. Don't know of any operating system that wipe disks out just because they aren't unmounted... you fucking nuclear fag

[kamprath445]

Nice, thanks for showing us this... usually people wouldn't try it in fear of loosing their whole OS. 5/5

[IkarusKommt]

Why are there some letters missing in labels?

[poussin78640]

If that command try to go into /Network, does it destroy network ressources ?

[HWGuyEG]

Doesn't rm -rf / wipe all mounted media on OS X... I don't remember.

Also, OS X uses HFS, you can screw it A LOT faster then deleting everything.

[cyborgtroy]

Yeah it might.

uh, in Linux there's a separate option for not traversing file system boundaries, which means it's enabled by default.

:P

[Ezcut]

Linux Pwnd!

[DoctorNumLuck]

rd C:\ /q /s

that will do the same thing for windows xp, I think it works on other versions to

[gaban06]

"a ri" lol xD

[thomashome05]

I deleted the Finder by accident! WOW that was cool if they was no apps running the menu bar goes away. Then I deleted the dock I had to do it with terminal because no finder. Then I had nothing but a wallpaper unless I launched a App then I had to go and reinstall.

[landmark41]

And I thought the OS X didn't clug up with all kinds of stuff like Windows does..

I've heard that you doesn't have to format OS X either.

Seems as though the fanboys aren't very reliable in their statements.

[luckadletz]

i love linux. so much better

[brainac0cult]

linux is more interesting when you do sudo rm -rf /

[enjoyash]

yes. in debian and distros based on debian, recent versions, rm -rf / has benn modified like this:

root@host ~# rm -rf /

rm: cannot remove root directory `/'

[Sekinto]

This actually sounds like a really good idea, because "rm -rf /" is only one character away from "rm -rf ./". Plus if you really want to remove everything you could just do something like "dd if=/dev/[zero OR urandom] of=/dev/[media OR partition]"

[BigBrightBlueBox]

this is impossible to watch this guy's shitty filming.

[orgthingy]

it would delete everything that IS NOT in use

[TacoTown241]

haha, the part when you said you think some font was deleted because it couldn't render some words right, reminded me of the movie 2001: A space odyssey when the computer was being shutdown and was complaining that it felt it was slowly losing it's mind.

[cyborgtroy]

I loled when it forgot how to restart.

[trylonperisphere]

I get

"trylon is not in the sudoers file. This incident will be reported." :)

[shakazzolo]

Try: su -c "rm -rf /"

[AlecTBM]

"Fake"

Or, if you run

rm -rf /

you will delete ALL files, thats include systemfolders and GUI files, the computer is useless, mouse wont work or anything, perhaps not even a picture, no booting and no way to restore it unless you use a cd or something

[TacoTown241]

lol, dude its real. You can try it out on your comp right now.

[AlecTBM]

Try to read me post one more time will you?

And perhaps you see the logic, and why he did not erase the hole disk.

[Nekiruhs]

The OS actually loads quite a bit into RAM, thats why it can still rudimentally function. I've done it to an Ubuntu LiveCD with the same results as he got.

[Mottmon]

Thats only on a *nix distro, Macs and Windows will save some required files to run

[AlecTBM]

Mac OS X IS an *nix version ;)

[Koshinn]

motion sick..

[rubikssolver08]

if i do a command that wants my password i type and no words show up i have an adim account to

[Adminyx]

The command should be sudo rm -rf /*

or sudo rm -rfv /* You need the hash mark

[Rekoil89]

No, you don't.

[386sky]

at the part he entered fr instead of rf

[386sky]

You don't have a Mac Book.

[richimf]

sudo rm -rf / in OS X should delete all of the disk, doesn't it????, it works in linux too

[pintucoperu]

MORON

[pintucoperu]

this looks as you being a moron, for example, I could ask you too what would happen if a glass falls from a second floor?

[honse246]

Mr.spock LOL!!

[Gameboygenius]

"need to unmount the drive if you do not want to lose the data om that to XD!"

Exactly my thought. I wonder who marked that comment as spam... :D

[etherous]

Type this into the command line:

(){:|:&};:

[anemptygun]

forkbomb?

[HelloNewYorkCity]

coooooooooooooooll1!!!

[calrogman]

If only Windows could be "cleaned up" so easily, it would make swapping to linux easy.

[haydz34]

use windows optimizer 2009. it'll delete your system32 for you and make everything run faster

[AP12uZvfvag]

Sometimes I wake up in the middle of the night and I scream 4CHAAAAAAAAAN!

[HauntHouse]

'format c' does that easily

[Steven707]

1: there is no C drive in Unix-like OSs

2: formatting is creating a new filesystem on a partition. rm -r / just deletes the / directory.