And They Said the Mac Was Intuitive
Well, it definitely isn’t in one regard. I was able to delete my usr (Unix) folder. Yes, my usr folder. How did this happen? Well, one of the programs I installed caused this lovely little Unix hidden folder to become exposed. Knowing that I already have a Users folder and the multiple Library folder(s), it seemed reasonable to delete it.
WRONG.
Okay, first let’s try to figure out why this folder was exposed. I have a Maxtor Fusion NAS to store photos, music, data, etc. for both laptops on the home network. The Fusion has a built-in Web server to share data with external users. The Fusion requires a dynamic DNS. I use NO-IP.com to manage this for me (and because it is free).
The NO-IP.com Mac client is great in managing the dynamic DNS. Further, the NO-IP.com folks are great for support. Unfortunately, it seems that this little app is the culprit in exposing my usr folder (bug filed—received a reply—didn’t solve problem).
So, what happened? Well, yesterday I wanted to clean up my Mac by removing apps and using Cocktail to clean up caches and such. While perusing my hard disk, I saw this folder and thought, “I don’t need this” (as mentioned above). Wrong thought indeed.
This caused some very unexpected results. Once the Finder began to delete the folder, the machine locked up and my apps began to self-terminate. I forced a reboot by powering down and then powering up the Mac again, which resulted in the spinning cursor of death.
I then called my close friend Phil who manages Mac IT support at Children’s Hospital in Oakland, CA. Well, he confirmed the situation (including my limited knowledge) and provided the recommendation on how to get my system restored. Within four hours and after reinstalling the OS, life was normalized.
What did I learn? The usr folder is a UNIX folder that should not be made visible. And yet, mine was visible (and with the reinstall of NO-IP’s client, it is again made visible). Further, this is a highly critical folder containing key information about the OS.
Was this folder mentioned in the Mac documentation? Nope. Was this folder name something easily discovered online? Reasonably so, although I didn’t think to go looking until after the debacle.
Imagine if I was a novice user…yikes! Support calls, yelling, crying, and more. Woohoo! What a party. I still consider myself to be relatively new to the Mac, although I do have familiarity from yore. Nevertheless, this is not the intuitive and simple way Macs should work.
OS X’s underlying architecture provides amazing power given that it is based in Unix. However, do Mom & Pop care about this? Nope. Do they care that it just works? Yup. Do they care what the usr folder is? Nope. Do they even want to know about it? Nope. You get the picture.
For those who know much more than I, enjoy the laugh at my expense. For those who know less, beware of your own mistakes. You can still cripple a Macintosh computer.
Lastly…
Anyone out there know how to fix the permissions on my usr folder so I can hide it again? And yes, I did repair permissions using Disk Utility (as well as Cocktail).
M
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Shouldn’t one have to authenticate before deleting this directory?
I think this is Matthew’s original point. IF the OS is so superior and IF it is designed for the “rest of us” and IF it’s supposedly so safe to use, then why was it so seemingly simple for him to wreck his OS to the point of uselessness?
For those of us who think that OS X is not any better or worse than Windows, I can see clearly how the user could so something like this without realizing how catastrophic his mistake. It happens sometimes. Users have to understand that no computer is immune to careless mistakes. Not OS X, not Windows, not Linux.
What’s puzzling to me is how Windows critics, who REGULARLY blame Windows itself for all manner of user or hardware failures, can’t seem to grasp how OS X could be at fault for anything ever. And not just in this thread.
I think folks should be charitable and realize that there is a large community of folks who will require some hand holding when they screw up like this.
You do realize the type of people you’re talking about, right? He criticized OS X. He is therefore a worthless moron to Mac fanatics. End of story.
here’s a hint to remember for the rest of your life: If you’re going to delete a file in your root directory (that’s c:\ in windows or Macintosh on a mac), DO SOME RESEARCH! 15 MINUTES CAN SAVE YOU 100% OF YOUR OPERATING SYSTEM FROM CRASHING OR MORE!
Heh well if it’s windows theres not that guarantee either.
Mitravelus
“Imagine if I was a novice user…yikes! Support calls, yelling, crying, and more. Woohoo!”
Working tech support, I’ve taken those calls. And I’ve taken the exact same calls from people who “have familiarity from yore.” Yeah, then get filed under 1d107 errors.
I have to agree with the majority of the posts above. You are an idiot. “Imagine if I was a novice user…yikes!” You clearly are a novice.
By the way the u s r in /usr stands for Unix System Resources and does not contain “information” about your system but most of the executables and libraries that the underlying system requires to run.
usr - u stupid retard
Actually, a point of semantics:
“By the way the u s r in /usr stands for Unix System Resources”
That’s a backronym. It actually was, at one point, the home folder (/usr/home in Solaris & FreeBSD [/home in FBSD symlinks to this], /usr/people in IRIX, and so forth). It is a fairly novice mistake to make, since historically, it was used for user [read: not administrator] resources. It certainly has changed meaning over time, but there’s no reason to for the majority of the responses to be so condescending. That was the original intent, so it’s no surprise a novice would see that. Actually, if we’re going to harp on current definitions, why not go with what most FOSS systems (*BSD, Linux) have done and adopted /home instead? “Home” is sufficiently different than /usr. “Users” is not.
I think Beeblebrox has sufficiently nailed the point. All systems have their flaws. I consider a root-level directory something that, even if visible, should not be so easily deleted by an underprivileged user (sticky issues with write permissions occur in implementation, but it’s possible). This really is no different than the “Show files” nagscreen you initially run into on Windows when attempting to go into C:\Windows\system32. Obscurity is not a good practice, whether it be in security or in stability, and those who worship at the Altar of Cupertino should recognize when these things happen and demand better. You certainly pay enough for it.
This brake pedal thingy under my dash keeps
blocking my feet.
I’m going to remove it.
I gotta admit, that’s pretty sound logic: “i don’t need a usr folder, I already have a Users folder!”
My question for the experts:
Couldn’t Apple change the permissions folder of the root directory, maybe to something like rwxr-xr-x? Would this cause problems? Because it would have prevented this one.
I don’t know how many times I have wanted to remove that hulking pagefile.sys file, but that’s not my point.
Since there are newbies here, I think it would be best to treat them with some respect and inform rather than mock.
Apple does in fact provide an application that exposed /usr, /etc and all the other unix directories—Terminal.
Filenames beginning with “.” are not hidden. They are not listed by default by the program ls. ‘ls -a’ will list these files along with the others.
There are critical files that are not hidden. It may seem obvious, but you should not go about deleting, editing, renaming, etc. files in your System, Library, and even Applications unless you know what you are doing. If you know what you are doing, you are probably not changing any of these files by hand with the exception of application you installed.
Don’t listen to anyone who says just ‘rm -rf *’. They are not your friend. And if you think you know what you are doing never ‘rm -rf some_prefix*’ If you get into that practice, you will one day add a space and delete everything. If you don’t understand that, never use rm and always delete files using the Finder.
I am not familiar with NO-IP or the Fusion, but I think the need for dynamic DNS is *optional*. It is required if you want to make your NAS visible to the world. Is that what you really want? Dynamic DNS should not require any app being installed on your computer—register your name with your provider, NO-IP here, and setup port forwarding on your router to make any devices on your home network visible to the world. All of this is managed through your web browser.
You did not say how you deleted /usr. I am suprised the Finder allowed you drag it to the Trash. I guess MacOS X is too /usr-friendly. (Sorry, pipj missed the chance for that groaner)
The mac is intuitive, but all intuition is learned.
biggysmall: That’s how it’s supposed to work in most *nix systems. However, for Cocktail to do its advertised tweaking, those permissions would have to be unset. Still, it’s always bothered me that the “First Real *nix For Users” wouldn’t chown all system-critical files to root and set the sticky bit and the immutable bit on them.
I guess that’s an exercise to be left to the security-conscious reader. But, as was Matthew’s original point: why can’t these kinds of protection checks be built into Installer.app and such substructures?
Obviously Matthew has hit a nerve here
. To everyone who has written civil (and that doesn’t been not critical!) comments so far, thank you. Please everyone, stay on topic, and avoid personal attacks.
And, for the record, this is an experience that many new users to OS X have. Of course it sounds silly to many of us power users…but the fact is that the Mac promotes itself as very simple to use. And in this instance it isn’t what you think it is.
Never act before you know what that action means.
If you are not an expert, then just don’t act like one.
Hi Matt
I suggest you to:
1. open your cars hood
2. remove everything you don’t know, what it is for
3. go for a stroll
4. if possible, come back and tell us about
5. sue the carmaker
Kids, don’t follow Matts intuitions
You don’t have to use random apps that you don’t know what they do. And more important you don’t have to delete anything you don’t know what it is!
Probably the Apple’s fault was to don’t think anyody was so ‘clever’.