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Home arrow Member Blogs arrow Improper Use of ‘rm -rf’ and ‘Sudo’ Command Cause Data Loss in Mac
Wednesday, 08 February 2012
Improper Use of ‘rm -rf’ and ‘Sudo’ Command Cause Data Loss in Mac PDF Print E-mail
Written by farvish   
Wednesday, 09 June 2010

Mac OS X is a multi-user operating system, which enables you to create different account for different users. You can store all your private and personal data to this account, which is not accessible by other users. The most powerful or significant account on Mac machine is a superuser or administrator account. However, in some situations, you may need to run several applications with security permissions of other user. You can do it using ‘Sudo’ command. But, you should keep in mind that improper use of this command can cause serious data loss and put you in need of Mac data recovery solutions.

Sudo is a powerful command of Mac OS X operating system that enables you to run the Mac OS X applications with another user’s security permissions (usually superuser). It is able to log every command and access administrative functions by logging as a superuser in some situations. This tools is usually employed to obtain superuser privileges temporarily to modify file permissions and alter the files.

The Sudo command also facilitates you to free up hard drive space, using ‘rm -rf’ command. It can be used to remove unwanted files from hard drive so that it can be used to store new files.

You should play safely while using the ‘rm -rf’ command. Any kind of mishandling or typographical error while using this command can cause critical data loss situations. If you insert space in wrong place, it can lead to permanent deletion of data from Mac OS X hard drive.

For instance, when you run the ‘rm -rf’ command with the following options, it results into permanent deletion of the critical Mac files stored in your Trash Bin folder:

sudo rm –rf ~/.Trash/

sudo rm –rf /.Thrashes/

sudo rm- rf /Volumes//.Trashes/

Unfortunately, if you come across any such situations, you should not panic. The deleted files are still there on your hard drive and it is possible to recover them using data recovery Mac alternatives.

feed1 Comments
mariapeter12
June 10, 2010
125.63.74.101
Votes: +0

Its quiet True Farvish Proper care should be taken while using "rm", "rf" and "sudo" command, In case of data loss mac file recovery software is required .

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Last Updated ( Wednesday, 09 June 2010 )
 
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