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A number of users have reported that running "rm --no-preserve-root -rf /" not only deletes all their files (as expected), but also permanently bricks their computers (which is not). Tracing the issue revealed that the ultimate cause was that SystemD mounted the EFI pseudo-fs as read-write even when this FS was not listed in fstab, and deleting certain files in this pseudo-fs causes certain buggy, but very common, firmware not to POST anymore. A user reported this bug on SystemD's GitHub issue tracker, asking that the FS be mounted read-only instead of read-write, and said bug was immediately closed as invalid. The comment thread for the bug was locked shortly after. Discuss.
Links:
https://github.com/systemd/systemd/issues/2402
http://thenextweb.com/insider/2016/02/01/running-a-single-delete-command-can-permanently-brick-laptops-from-inside-linux/
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday February 09 2016, @05:09AM
"rm -rf /" is undefined behavior, and a complaint unix system does not need to support it (It can throw a nice error saying not to do that). This is because deleting the current working directory (which is always under / somewhere) is explicitly undefined, and the order of deletion is also undefined. Thus there is nothing wrong with your rm simply refusing to support "rm -rf /", and any unix like OS that cares about its users (not Linux apparently) should simple have this command fail immediately instead of fail after deleting a lot of stuff.
Some BSD variants actually do this (make rm -rf / simply error). It started with SmartOS. There is a fantastic interview with Bryan Cantrill (CTO of Joyent who makes SmartOS) here: https://youtu.be/l6XQUciI-Sc?t=4859 [youtu.be] (Ubuntu Slaughters Kittens | BSD Now 103). Its seriously a fantastic interview (some great history, very funny, and a lot of interesting insight) I recommend watching the whole video _all 2 hours of it). And yes, the line "Ubuntu Slaughters Kittens" is used (in reference to the boot process).
(Score: 3, Insightful) by maxwell demon on Tuesday February 09 2016, @07:39AM
The fact that it was uncovered by an rm -rf / does not mean this command is the only way to trigger the problem. Anything that ends up deleting in the EFI file system will have the same effect.
The Tao of math: The numbers you can count are not the real numbers.
(Score: 2) by tangomargarine on Tuesday February 09 2016, @03:09PM
I was under the impression removing a directory above the working directory in the tree was defined--your working dir would still exist until you cd'd out of it, then it would become inaccessible.
"Is that really true?" "I just spent the last hour telling you to think for yourself! Didn't you hear anything I said?"