[CLUE-Tech] RE: Root vs User

[Jed S. Baer]

On Thu, 7 Nov 2002 07:31:59 -0700
"Timothy C. Klein" <teece at silverklein.net> wrote:

> There is no real harm in the occasional SU to root to for a file
> 'upload.'  Why?  As I was saying before, on a home use machine, a root
> mistake that nukes /usr is damn inconvenient, but that is it.  Nuke
> /etc, and is even more inconvenient.  Nuke /home/user, and your really
> crying.  And that last one can happen as your everyday user.

As you've said before, it makes a big difference, depending upon how you
use your machine. But that difference isn't just home vs. server. In my
case, I have a very easy backup/recovery for /home. I don't have any for
the OS. It would be really nice if I had a big tape backup system. I
don't. I therefore have to make some concessions. So, I backup only the
most critical files, which I have no other way to restore. So, if I'm
logged in as root, and I make a mistake and blow away /usr, I have to
reinstall from the distro. If I nuke /home/me, I unpack a tarball.

But, regardless of how easy/hard it is to recover accidentally deleted
files, why expose yourself to the risk of accidental deletion any more
than you have to? One person on this thread seemed pretty blase
(apparently) about the time it takes to reinstall, and that's his choice.
But it isn't one I recommend to anyone. Even if I had a nice big fast tape
backup system, I still wouldn't use root except when absolutely necessary,
because I agree with Keith -- I don't want to spend my time doing
restores, of any kind.

So why take the chance, when it's unneccesary? That's all I'm saying.

jed
-- 
We're frogs who are getting boiled in a pot full of single-character
morphemes, and we don't notice. - Larry Wall; Perl6, Apocalypse 5