[R] dev-lang/R-3.1.0: biocLite("vsn") removes all files in /

peter dalgaard pdalgd at gmail.com
Sun May 18 20:43:22 CEST 2014


On 18 May 2014, at 07:38 , Jeff Newmiller <jdnewmil at dcn.davis.ca.us> wrote:

> Then you had best not do it again if you don't like that result.
> 
> 1) This is not the right mailing list for issues having to do with bioconductor. Please go to the bioconductor mailing list for that.

Hmm, this is one case where I'd really rather not scare people off R-help. Non-BioC users do use BioC packages from time to time and what Juergen did is what the BioConductor web pages tells new users to do (probably minus the as-root bit). A warn-off on R-help seems entirely warranted. Good to see that Martin Morgan is taking the issue very seriously in his post below.

> 
> 2) Running random scripts straight from the internet as root without reviewing them is exactly the kind of thing any experienced *nix user would never do. That is why user-level accounts have limits on the things they can do. I doubt you are supposed to be running anything with your current directory set to /, ever, especially not logged in as root.
> ---------------------------------------------------------------------------
> Jeff Newmiller                        The     .....       .....  Go Live...
> DCN:<jdnewmil at dcn.davis.ca.us>        Basics: ##.#.       ##.#.  Live Go...
>                                      Live:   OO#.. Dead: OO#..  Playing
> Research Engineer (Solar/Batteries            O.O#.       #.O#.  with
> /Software/Embedded Controllers)               .OO#.       .OO#.  rocks...1k
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------- 
> Sent from my phone. Please excuse my brevity.
> 
> On May 17, 2014 10:16:46 PM PDT, Juergen Rose <rose at rz.uni-potsdam.de> wrote:
>> I had the following files in /:
>> 
>> root at caiman:/root(8)# ll /
>> total 160301
>> drwxr-xr-x   2 root root      4096 May 16 12:23 bin/
>> drwxr-xr-x   6 root root      3072 May 14 13:58 boot/
>> -rw-r--r--   1 root root     38673 May 14 14:22 boot_local-d.log
>> lrwxrwxrwx   1 root root        11 Jan 22  2011 data -> data_caiman/
>> drwxr-xr-x   7 root root      4096 Mar  9 22:29 data_caiman/
>> lrwxrwxrwx   1 root root        23 Dec 29 13:43 data_impala ->
>> /net/impala/data_impala/
>> lrwxrwxrwx   1 root root        21 Jan 27 08:13 data_lynx2 ->
>> /net/lynx2/data_lynx2/
>> drwxr-xr-x  21 root root      4040 May 14 14:40 dev/
>> drwxr-xr-x 160 root root     12288 May 17 17:14 etc/
>> -rw-------   1 root root     15687 Dec 26 13:42 grub.cfg_old
>> lrwxrwxrwx   1 root root        11 Jan 23  2011 home -> home_caiman/
>> drwxr-xr-x   5 root root      4096 Dec 26 11:31 home_caiman/
>> lrwxrwxrwx   1 root root        23 Dec 29 13:43 home_impala ->
>> /net/impala/home_impala/
>> lrwxrwxrwx   1 root root        21 Jan 27 08:13 home_lynx2 ->
>> /net/lynx2/home_lynx2/
>> lrwxrwxrwx   1 root root         5 Mar 30 04:25 lib -> lib64/
>> drwxr-xr-x   3 root root      4096 May 14 04:31 lib32/
>> drwxr-xr-x  17 root root     12288 May 16 12:23 lib64/
>> -rw-r--r--   1 root root   1797418 May 14 14:22 login.log
>> drwx------   2 root root     16384 Jan 20  2011 lost+found/
>> drwxr-xr-x   2 root root         0 May 14 14:21 misc/
>> drwxr-xr-x  10 root root      4096 Nov  4  2013 mnt/
>> drwxr-xr-x   4 root root         0 May 17 17:38 net/
>> drwxr-xr-x  13 root root      4096 Feb 13 13:25 opt/
>> dr-xr-xr-x 270 root root         0 May 14 14:21 proc/
>> drwx------  36 root root      4096 May 17 15:00 root/
>> drwxr-xr-x  30 root root       840 May 16 18:21 run/
>> drwxr-xr-x   2 root root     12288 May 16 12:23 sbin/
>> -rw-r--r--   1 root root 162191459 Jan 13  2011
>> stage3-amd64-20110113.tar.bz2
>> dr-xr-xr-x  12 root root         0 May 14 14:21 sys/
>> drwxrwxrwt  16 root root      1648 May 17 17:14 tmp/
>> drwxr-xr-x  19 root root      4096 May  6 04:40 usr/
>> drwxr-xr-x  16 root root      4096 Dec 26 11:17 var/
>> 
>> 
>> Then I did as root:
>> R
>>> source("http://bioconductor.org/biocLite.R")
>>> biocLite("vsn")
>> 
>> Save workspace image? [y/n/c]: n
>> root at caiman:/root(15)# ll /
>> total 93
>> drwxr-xr-x   2 root root  4096 May 16 12:23 bin/
>> drwxr-xr-x   6 root root  3072 May 14 13:58 boot/
>> drwxr-xr-x   7 root root  4096 Mar  9 22:29 data_caiman/
>> drwxr-xr-x  21 root root  4040 May 14 14:40 dev/
>> drwxr-xr-x 160 root root 12288 May 17 17:14 etc/
>> drwxr-xr-x   5 root root  4096 Dec 26 11:31 home_caiman/
>> drwxr-xr-x   3 root root  4096 May 14 04:31 lib32/
>> drwxr-xr-x  17 root root 12288 May 16 12:23 lib64/
>> drwx------   2 root root 16384 Jan 20  2011 lost+found/
>> drwxr-xr-x   2 root root     0 May 14 14:21 misc/
>> drwxr-xr-x  10 root root  4096 Nov  4  2013 mnt/
>> drwxr-xr-x   2 root root     0 May 17 17:38 net/
>> drwxr-xr-x  13 root root  4096 Feb 13 13:25 opt/
>> dr-xr-xr-x 272 root root     0 May 14 14:21 proc/
>> drwx------  36 root root  4096 May 17 15:00 root/
>> drwxr-xr-x  30 root root   840 May 16 18:21 run/
>> drwxr-xr-x   2 root root 12288 May 16 12:23 sbin/
>> dr-xr-xr-x  12 root root     0 May 17 17:38 sys/
>> drwxrwxrwt  19 root root  1752 May 17 18:33 tmp/
>> drwxr-xr-x  19 root root  4096 May  6 04:40 usr/
>> drwxr-xr-x  16 root root  4096 Dec 26 11:17 var/
>> 
>> I.e., all not directory files in / disappeared. This happens on two
>> systems.
>> 
>> ______________________________________________
>> R-help at r-project.org mailing list
>> https://stat.ethz.ch/mailman/listinfo/r-help
>> PLEASE do read the posting guide
>> http://www.R-project.org/posting-guide.html
>> and provide commented, minimal, self-contained, reproducible code.
> 
> ______________________________________________
> R-help at r-project.org mailing list
> https://stat.ethz.ch/mailman/listinfo/r-help
> PLEASE do read the posting guide http://www.R-project.org/posting-guide.html
> and provide commented, minimal, self-contained, reproducible code.

-- 
Peter Dalgaard, Professor,
Center for Statistics, Copenhagen Business School
Solbjerg Plads 3, 2000 Frederiksberg, Denmark
Phone: (+45)38153501
Email: pd.mes at cbs.dk  Priv: PDalgd at gmail.com



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