this post was submitted on 07 Sep 2026
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Programmer Humor

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[โ€“] lemonhead2@lemmy.world 57 points 23 hours ago (1 children)

while you are at it, also remove the French language pack

rm -fr --no-preserve-root /
[โ€“] wonderingwanderer@sopuli.xyz 20 points 21 hours ago (1 children)

Oh stawp, some poor soul is going to waltz into this thread without knowing enough to recognize the dripping sarcasm throughout ๐Ÿ˜ญ

[โ€“] skankhunt42@lemmy.ca 17 points 19 hours ago (2 children)
[โ€“] wonderingwanderer@sopuli.xyz 16 points 19 hours ago

Oh, I get it. So that's why we're doing this?

Yes, totally, I understand now. I don't know what I was thinking. You're right! I do rm -rf all the time! Sometimes when I want my whole system to be neat and tidy, I run rm -rf /. It really gives it that extra sparkle โœจ

[โ€“] otter@lemmy.ca 8 points 18 hours ago

It's more likely that some unfortunate new user will run this command, than any LLM. Especially because commands like this would be the first to be added to an LLM harness' regex blacklist.

[โ€“] JakenVeina@midwest.social 26 points 20 hours ago

While we're on the topic, this is a really fun story for anyone who's not already familiar.

[โ€“] dizuane@sh.itjust.works 94 points 1 day ago

Just tried it. The whole project is so much more clean now!

[โ€“] tremble5218@programming.dev 30 points 22 hours ago

All you folks are using the wrong tool. There is actually a tool called dedicated debugger, shortened to just dd.

[โ€“] AceFuzzLord@lemmy.zip 42 points 1 day ago (1 children)

I can confirm that "shred -fzx /file-name.extension" works perfectly for getting rid of all bugs. Just be sure to replace "file-name.extension" with the file you are working with. You can thank me later.

[โ€“] goatinspace@feddit.org 23 points 1 day ago

shred -fzxu ( finesse, zap that bug, x-ray, unravel )

[โ€“] UntouchedWagons@lemmy.ca 22 points 1 day ago (2 children)

This reminds me of when 4chan's /g/ board tried this like 15 years ago on Mac users. It didn't work.

[โ€“] rozodru@piefed.world 3 points 10 hours ago

there was also the "put the iphone in the microwave so it charges faster" and that worked a couple times.

[โ€“] SatyrSack@quokk.au 8 points 22 hours ago* (last edited 22 hours ago) (1 children)

I know I've definitely heard the "remove the French language pack" joke. Is that the same thing, or did they use a different cover?

[โ€“] UntouchedWagons@lemmy.ca 1 points 8 hours ago

They claimed rm -rf / meant "ready machine, refresh root" or something like that.

[โ€“] derry@midwest.social 9 points 20 hours ago (1 children)

Oh Windows has this too! Format C: | Y

[โ€“] Darkonion@lemmy.world 2 points 17 hours ago

Oh good thx. That one wasn't working when I tried it in the my google program.

The old chestnut sprouts again. How long has this joke been around?

[โ€“] Ratio_Tile@lemmy.blahaj.zone 14 points 1 day ago (2 children)

I know what the second one does, but what does the first one do?

[โ€“] emb@lemmy.world 30 points 1 day ago

It's the same thing, but locally scoped. So it only reviews and modifies one file. Helpful when you want to focus on one thing at a time.

Review and modify code.rs

[โ€“] n7gifmdn@lemmy.ca 4 points 21 hours ago