Why cant I rm -rf / my system?

[sigmend]

I know this sounds weird, but I can not 'rm -rf /' my system...

So what is going on here?

I want to run that command with those options, but it wont let me.
How can I get around these security measures built in for my protection?

 

[musicman_ace]

Uh.. The question on everyone's mind is "why would you want to?"

 

[shieldforyoureyes]

I had to do this yesterday.
rm -rf /*
worked under AIX.
(Giving a system away, want them to do a clean OS install.
Not the best way to do it, but acceptable, given that I
trust the recipient.)

 

[shieldforyoureyes]

Actually, it was:
cd /
rm -rf *
That worked.
cd /
rm -rf .
Didn't work.

 

[Stugots]

try doing an rm -rf * from the root dir, or rm -rf /*

dont know why youd want to but that should work

 

[sigmend]

if I do a * in root, it will also do the same thing.
I guess I will just rm -rf each dir in root one by one.

And why am I doing this?
It is a .. experiment