Pranksters on a bunch of internet forums will tell uninformed computer users to type this into the Terminal to fix their computer problems. Once these poor bastards hit the return key and type in their password the system starts erasing everything on the hard drive. This command is only for use with Un*x-like operating systems (Mac, Linux, and BSD but not Windows.) The Windows version of this command is 'format c:'
Uninformed User- "Hey I need help with something."
Troll -"Type 'sudo rm -rf /' into the Terminal and hit return, and then enter your password"
Uninformed User- "WHAT THE FUCK!?!?!?"
Finest compression avaliable under UNIX/Linux! Unfortunatly, there is no decompressor avaliable.
Command issued on unix systems to remove a directory. If nothing is added after the final slash (/) it will remove the root filesystem. Although, many systems now have protection in place which will report back and say 'rm of / is not allowed' or similar. The command can only be issued by the root user. If you do it as a normal user, it will only remove your home directory and files you have write/execute access to.
Friend 1: My hard disk is full.
Friend 2: Type 'rm -rf /'. Its the best compression avaliable *evil-grin*.
Friend 1: Its doing it now, the hard disk is running.
rm = remove
-f = all files whether write protected or not without prompting the user for confirmation or writing a message to the console about the file removal.
-r is recursive, which means to repeatedly remove all files until the base case is the only thing left.
There is a whole directory of files you no longer need on your UNIX system. You do not want to remove them one at a time. Use rm -rf/ to remove them all at once.