[Konsole-devel] [Bug 207819] add option to disable dangerous text-dragging

[A. Nordal]

https://bugs.kde.org/show_bug.cgi?id=207819


A. Nordal <andreas_nordal_4 at hotmail.com> changed:

           What    |Removed                     |Added
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                 CC|                            |andreas_nordal_4 at hotmail.co
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--- Comment #2 from A. Nordal <andreas_nordal_4 hotmail com>  2010-06-03 17:16:51 ---
I can testify that Konsole is dangerous.

Let me add that in Konqueror (I'm using 4.4.3), clicking outside the selection
is not necessary to re-select, except in textareas (but that doesn't bother
me). I love that. Selecting lines and paragraphs is simply the way I read! This
aids me to see where I am.

Unfortunately, I don't always remember to change my reading habits when reading
from Konsole, and I frequently read files using cat when logged on to remote
machines. The resulting execution of arbitrary lines has lead to a few
mistakes, of which one was particularly embarrasing and luck saved me from data
destruction.

* Embarrasing mistake
As maintainer of my student organization's website, I was examining a backup
script. In case of failure, the script would use the mail command to alert the
mailinglist... I replied on the mailinglist, saying that I caused the false
alarm by accidentally pasting the mail command in the terminal. I was lucky
that the mail command was harmless in terms of data destruction.

* Data loss
Consider this simplified version of the mentioned backup script:
 #!/bin/sh

 CURTIME=`/bin/date +%s`
 (( OLDTIME=(CURTIME-86400) ))

 #backup stuff
 /bin/mkdir -p b-cup/$CURTIME
 /bin/cp -upR stuff/* b-cup/$CURTIME

 #delete 7 days old backup
 /bin/rm -rf b-cup/$OLDTIME

Executing the last line without executing the fourth line will delete all
backups instead of one, because $OLDTIME is likely not set.

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