Thus spake Wojciech Puchar ("WP> ") sometime Today...

WP> > I too have long experience with Unix, perhaps not _quite_ as long as
WP> > smb's (I first started using it in the mid-'80s), and I too don't
WP> > normally run as root.  I used to - for much of my career the mouse
WP> > login was uid 0 on my machines - but I've found that the risks of being
WP> > able to wipe out anything with a mistake outweigh the advantages
WP> > (largely convenience).

heh.  Yer, I'm with you, there.

There's also something of a really stupid-sounding 'cool' factor (i.e.
it sounds stupid to most seasoned veterans but it's still cool to me,
as a seasoned veteran) about being able to su to uid 0, even on one's
own box.

Part of that, for anyone that understands the concept of Real Magick[TM],
is the intent associated with the action -- it is a conscious step taken
to become more (i.e. "all-") powerful, and it serves as a reminder that
responsibility -- if even to one's own data, let alone the rest of the
machine! -- must be taken, as well as great care.

I will never forget the time I saw someone trying to get rid of a
directory that was named " " (a single space char) in the root directory
of a legacy project machine for which we had no backups and no real way
to regenerate the box without jumping through lots of hoops.

# rm(space)-rf(space)/(space)(return)

WP> typing
WP>
WP> rm -rf /*
WP>
WP> instead of
WP>
WP> rm -rf .*
WP>
WP> in one subdirectory because of typo successfully teached me not do general
WP> work as root :)

ls -A (return)
pwd (return)
rm -rf .* (examine results of ls -A for 10 seconds and be sure that's
	really what I had in mind) (return)

The one that usually gets me is

$ rm -rf /some/path *
instead of
$ rm -rf /some/path/*


				--*greywolf;
--
NetBSD: The devil's advocate.