Steam For Linux Bug Erases All Your Personal Files

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If you are a Steam for Linux user you are definitely going to want to read this. :eek:

Users on Valve’s GitHub Steam for Linux page are complaining about a nasty bug that has the potential to wipe out every single personal file on your PC. Even worse, users say the bug will even wipe out documents on USB connected drives. So much for local backups.
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Only if you move your steam install path and run it as root, but still who doesn't check for directory existance before a rm -r, sheesh.
 
yeah... running rm -rf / has some bad effects like that.

Hopefully those hit had other backups.
 
"So much for local backups."

Local backup? That's an oxymoron.
 
# Scary!.

Indeed.

Unless people are running Steam as root (why would they?) this will only harm user files, not system files.

user files can be pretty important too, though :p
 
lol, this basically sums up how I feel about gaming on Linux. just format and dual boot windows.
 
JosiahBradley said:
Only if you move your steam install path and run it as root, but still who doesn't check for directory existance before a rm -r, sheesh.
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Actually, that is incorrect

running rm -rf / as a user would still result in all files being owned by that user being deleted from the filesystem(s).
There would be a large amount of permission denied as it tried to delete everything else, but it would sill traverse the entirety of /, including other filesystems mounted under /
 
Most people are not going to have to worry about this, and I imagine those unfortunate few who have discovered this bug are some of the only people who are at risk. Either way, this doesn't look good for gaming on Linux, and I hope they get it fixed soon! Maybe 2015 won't be the year of Linux on the desktop or whatever, and maybe that time will never come... However, Linux is still an amazing operating system, even if some of us have to use Windows in order to game decently. If I could, I would use Linux all the time, but we all know Microsoft/Windows still has a place in gaming right now.

Once Linux gets gaming on lock, then it will be very appealing for many people. Honestly, there needs to be a larger pirating community for gaming on Linux, and that would help a lot. Not many games to pirate over there, and whatever you think of pirating, an operating system needs it in order to truly take off. Get more pirated games on Linux, and more people will be okay with switching. Just how it goes.

Anyway, very interesting article, hope they get it fixed, and lots of Linux love to all.
 
MisterHipster said:
Not many games to pirate over there, and whatever you think of pirating, an operating system needs it in order to truly take off. Get more pirated games on Linux, and more people will be okay with switching. Just how it goes.
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Not sure how more piracy would entice developers.
 
heatlesssun said:
Not sure how more piracy would entice developers.
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I believe he was talking about attracting more people to Linux, since their PC could play more games, which if we are honest, is what a lot of people do with their PCs. Developers will continue to complain about piracy no matter what, but the reality of the situation is that they lose more money combating piracy than the actual sales volume lost to piracy (at least that is what I read on the Internet somewhere). Linux needs a larger user base to make it a viable target for game developers and Steam OS has a chance to lead this charge, especially since Steam is also a DRM solution that potentially thwarts piracy. That's how developers see it anyway, I imagine.
 
InsanePerson said:
Actually, that is incorrect

running rm -rf / as a user would still result in all files being owned by that user being deleted from the filesystem(s).
There would be a large amount of permission denied as it tried to delete everything else, but it would sill traverse the entirety of /, including other filesystems mounted under /
Click to expand...

Yep, and since *nix operating systems mount everything in the / folder structure (no drive letters) that would include every mounted drive of any kind (including USB stick, external hard drives and network file systems) the user had write access to.

And furthermore, because it was probably not run in a terminal, when all the "permission denied" errors start coming in, there is no way to know and in a panic mash ctrl-c :p

its a poor implementation on Valve's part, but in no way a Linux problem - per se.

Only people who moved or otherwise deleted their steam dir, and then tried to clean it up using the scripts would encounter this problem, I'd suspect.
 
fixedmy7970 said:
lol, this basically sums up how I feel about gaming on Linux. just format and dual boot windows.
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This is no different than Microsoft releasing a Windows update that breaks Windows or some Anti Virus program update that decides to delete your computer.
 
Cmustang87 said:
Backing up from one hard disk to another hard disk is a local backup.
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You should never leave your only backup drive connected, except when you are actually running a backup.
Preferably you should have at least 2 backup drives, and swap them out every few weeks, and keep one off-site in case of disaster.
 
Even with no files, Linux is at least a million times better than some dumb Windows 8 tablet. LOL, they don't even sell the Surface with a keyboard so it's not like you can even create files for another piece of software to accidentally delete if you own one of those pieces of junk!
 
MrCaffeineX said:
I believe he was talking about attracting more people to Linux, since their PC could play more games, which if we are honest, is what a lot of people do with their PCs. Developers will continue to complain about piracy no matter what, but the reality of the situation is that they lose more money combating piracy than the actual sales volume lost to piracy (at least that is what I read on the Internet somewhere). Linux needs a larger user base to make it a viable target for game developers and Steam OS has a chance to lead this charge, especially since Steam is also a DRM solution that potentially thwarts piracy. That's how developers see it anyway, I imagine.
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True, developers will always complain about piracy. And what MH is saying here would only seem to give them even more to complain about. Plus I don't see how a bunch of pirated games would mean anything to most people in relation to an OS. I imagine that you Windows is never going to have a shortage of pirated games available.
 
heatlesssun said:
True, developers will always complain about piracy. And what MH is saying here would only seem to give them even more to complain about. Plus I don't see how a bunch of pirated games would mean anything to most people in relation to an OS. I imagine that you Windows is never going to have a shortage of pirated games available.
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More people on an OS will lead to more developers developing for it at the end of the day, and the best way to get them there is to offer pirated games. Steam is great if you have a lot of money to buy a bunch of games, but if you are like most people, you need the ability to pirate some games... Which actually helps more than it hurts anyway, even the devs... Most of them get that, and turn a blind eye to piracy for this reason... If they do fight it, they don't fight hard.

Anyway, my point is that if there are more games available that people don't perceive as terrible indie games, then we'll get more people to Linux, and a lot of people pirate.

I think Linux is better than Windows in nearly every way, but the gaming situation needs fixed on Linux, and one way to address that is through more piracy of games... Also, Windows compatibility (for old games) needs improved greatly, but that is a long ways off.

Obviously games need to be sold as well, but that is a different matter, and Steam is already addressing that.
 
I think if they just check to make sure that STEAMROOT variable is set before running the rm, they'll be okay.
 
Zarathustra[H];1041364533 said:
its a poor implementation on Valve's part, but in no way a Linux problem - per se.
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I dunno, seems to me like rm should probably prompt for confirmation by default, especially when used with the recursive option.
 
nutzo said:
You should never leave your only backup drive connected, except when you are actually running a backup.
Preferably you should have at least 2 backup drives, and swap them out every few weeks, and keep one off-site in case of disaster.
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I understand backup procedures.
 
MisterHipster said:
Agreed 100%... There isn't any good reason not to confirm the option in my opinion.
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Well, you wouldn't want a confirmation prompt in the background of an automated script built into a program.

I guess you could add a confirmation dialogue in the case of "rm -fr", as long as there is a switch to override the confirmation, but that switch to override the confirmation would probably wind up being used in any automated bash script executed as part of a program anyway, making it kind of moot for this implementation.
 
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