The “find … -delete” Catastrophe and How to Stop It
A single typo in a find command can wipe a production directory, a backup, or an entire filesystem. The classic recipe that trips even seasoned sysadmins is:
find / -name '*.tmp' -delete
If the leading slash is omitted or the pattern is too broad, the command starts at the wrong root and deletes everything that matches. In 2025, a handful of high‑profile incidents were traced back to this exact mistake, underscoring that defensive scripting is as much about guardrails as it is about automation.
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