I have no idea what I just did, and I am an idiot.

UNIX for Beginners Q & A UNIX for Dummies Questions & Answers
1

I stupidly typed this into a unix command prompt through putty, and now i can't log back on:

:(){ :|:& };:

I am such an idiot. If anyone knows what I just did or how to fix it, I would really appreciate your help,

Thanks.

---------- Post updated at 01:13 PM ---------- Previous update was at 01:07 PM ----------

Sorry. That emoticon should be this:

:(){ :|:& };:

2

you did something bad... really bad...
Fork bomb - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

if you've physical access to the server, reset it. if not... hmm, you are screwed...

3

What does physical access mean? How could I reset it?

4

go to the server and push reset... or power... or whatever hardware you have with a special controller you need to use to reset the system...

5

Would I be the only one who finds it strange that the exact command posted here is the one found on the Wikipedia page?

So perhaps the questions should have been:

"I read a Wikipedia article on "fork bomb" and thought I'd try it. Now what do I do?"

6

if so, the "what to do" section is on the same page ;).

7

That's where the theory breaks down :slight_smile:

8

yes, so let's hope the OP didn't do this on an important system... and if important, then not for us :D.

9

Maybe there should be a link to this in the FAQ or somewhere similar.

10

Hey guys. OP here, obviously. Everything was taken care of. I'm not sure if I'll be getting in trouble yet, but if I do, I'll just take the consequences. This was probably the single most stupidest thing I have ever done in my life. Thanks to everyone who responded.

11

It certainly wouldn't have been the most stupid thing I ever did.

As a newbie sys admin I once rebooted a productive ClearCase server on the whim of someone who joined the company 2 days before.

"I was only trying to help" I said.

DOH!

12

would be nice to know WHY did you do it? this isn't a thing that just happens?

13

@OP. In your defense - unless you did it as user root of course - IMO it just should not be possible for an ordinary user to bring a system to its knees just by pasting something on a command prompt. There should be provisions either in the OS itself or in the setup to prevent these consequences.

14

Hehe I think we all did something stupid like this - at least once. When being first time with a very senior SA in the datacentre, I was told to 'press the button' when the system hung during an upgrade - he was pointing to the wrong box - and of course I did it ... in my case the rebooted server was the domain master server serving about 5000 production boxes :slight_smile: I still have my job and these days I am the very senior SA ... Thanks to virtualization I can these days 'press the button' myself :slight_smile:

Kind regards
zxmaus