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Made a big(?) mistake with mv /*/*/* ./
(lemmy.ml)
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this post was submitted on 07 Jun 2025
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Mark it as an achievement on your learning path and move on. We all did something silly like that at some point.
Great that you have backups, get a fresh install and restore it.
Lessons learned: don't work as root unless you absolutely positively have a good reason to do so.
e: sidenote. if you're using markdown for codeblocks you can add the language name after the first three backticks to change the syntax highlighting in the codeblock. TIL
I have the habit of holding shift everytime I delete something, one day I'll learn the hard way not to do it
I only have a backup of my own personal files, not of the whole system. So my question about impact is about not having to do a fresh install.
Also I have dual boot and grub etc do scare me. 😁
I didnt work as root by the way ...
I always treat the system as discardable and only backup the /home and /etc directories. Saving those, I can afford to wipe the system and re-settle on a new distro if I want to.
Of course if you throw Windows into the mix, all bets are off. Personally, I stay the hell away from that.
Yeah agree, its a work provided laptop, they allowed local admin etc but require Windows (at least that is) so just glad they gave me a HP laptop with 500GB SSD and for me certain freedom to configure dual boot etc