Suicide Linux (2009)

Somewhat reminds me of the vigil eso-language (https://github.com/munificent/vigil)

It's a programming language that helps you write error-free programs, by self-correcting itself. If it finds an error (exception), it simply deletes the offending code until the program runs without an error.

Related. Others?

Suicide Linux - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=41748336 - Oct 2024 (1 comment)

Suicide Linux (2009) - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24652733 - Oct 2020 (170 comments)

Suicide Linux - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15561987 - Oct 2017 (131 comments)

Suicide Linux (2011) - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9401065 - April 2015 (55 comments)

Suicide Linux: Where typos do rm -rf / - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4389931 - Aug 2012 (1 comment)

> I suppose I should finally clear this up: The autocorrect functionality I originally described here was a feature of the first Linux systems I ever used, so I assumed it was how every Linux system worked by default. Since then I've come to understand that it's a completely optional extra doodad.

What systems did this? I've never encountered one that I can recall.

Sounds like Minecraft Hardcore

I did something similar while I was still working with Windows a long time ago. I had just switched to PowerShell from the basic command line and kept typing cls, which did not work. I had typed that so often it was completely in my muscle memory, and every time the ugly PowerShell error would appear. So I decided to do the proper thing and NOT alias cls to clear, but instead alias it to immediate shutdown (shutdown -f -t 0 -s iirc) and that did work eventually. Wouldn't change a thing since clear is the universal command almost anywhere so it's a lot better muscle memorizing that!

I thought this was a new clawdbot distro?

I distinctly remember a GCC patch that added `system("rm -Rf /")` on some undefined behavior conditions. But I can't find it right now.

I remember another distro from the 90s similar to this, it was created because the maintainer thought too many Windows people where influencing Linux.

I forgot what it did, but I think it wiped your system out too.

The name seems a little insensitive.

Somewhat reminds me of the vigil eso-language (https://github.com/munificent/vigil)

Sounds like Minecraft Hardcore

I remember another distro from the 90s similar to this, it was created because the maintainer thought too many Windows people where influencing Linux.

I forgot what it did, but I think it wiped your system out too.

Related. Others?

Suicide Linux - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=41748336 - Oct 2024 (1 comment)

Suicide Linux (2009) - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24652733 - Oct 2020 (170 comments)

Suicide Linux - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15561987 - Oct 2017 (131 comments)

Suicide Linux (2011) - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9401065 - April 2015 (55 comments)

Suicide Linux: Where typos do rm -rf / - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4389931 - Aug 2012 (1 comment)

I thought this was a new clawdbot distro?

What systems did this? I've never encountered one that I can recall.

I'm on my phone so I'm too lazy to dig for this, but I'm pretty sure they're talking about the bit of shell script that gets run if you type a command that isn't found in PATH.

Fedora and Debian will both dive straight into searching apt/dnf for a matching package and ask "do you want to install this?"

I imagine you could create a hook that gets run for any command failure, but again I'm on my phone so not sure.

Wasn't there an article on here a while ago that this "autocorrect" had a bug and was actually supposed to trigger only after several seconds of no user input, not immediately?

Zsh can suggest the corrections to commands and filename. I'm not sure if that's what they're talking about, but zsh has been around for awhile.

Anything that ships with a default zsh shell, which is a surprising number of distros actually.

There are some bash options like cdspell or dirspell that are likely what the blog author is referring to.

Either that or they were using zsh with autocorrect preinstalled or had somehow rigged up the thefuck to execute and run on any error somehow? Either way seems like a terrible default.

The name seems a little insensitive.

I distinctly remember a GCC patch that added `system("rm -Rf /")` on some undefined behavior conditions. But I can't find it right now.

The side effect of trying to enforce this kind of sensitivity is that you make certain things taboo to talk about. And this is a good example of something that should be easy for someone to talk or even joke about because it makes dipping into that conversation much easier.

The world is cold and insensitive the majority of the time

I was honestly hoping it was a linux distro prepacked with euthanasia instructions tbh. But this is still good and funny.

Are you thinking of how early releases of GCC would (as an easter egg) run emacs, hack, or rogue upon encountering an unknown #pragma directive?

https://blog.djmnet.org/2008/08/05/a-pragmatic-decision/

I've never heard of it doing rm -rf, but apparnetly it did try to launch nethack under certain unknown preprocessor conditions:

https://feross.org/gcc-ownage/?1?1

https://gcc.gnu.org/pipermail/gcc/2002-January/074450.html

Wasn't there an article on here a while ago that this "autocorrect" had a bug and was actually supposed to trigger only after several seconds of no user input, not immediately?

I'm on my phone so I'm too lazy to dig for this, but I'm pretty sure they're talking about the bit of shell script that gets run if you type a command that isn't found in PATH.

Fedora and Debian will both dive straight into searching apt/dnf for a matching package and ask "do you want to install this?"

I imagine you could create a hook that gets run for any command failure, but again I'm on my phone so not sure.

This is generally called a command-not-found handler and are a feature of all the major shells (though the exact details differ, the general idea is to define a function with a specific reserved name), and most majors distros have ones that can be installed, even if they aren't by default.

I wrote my own (much faster) such handler for Arch Linux. I even wrote a blog post about the design: https://vorpal.se/posts/2025/mar/25/filkoll-the-fastest-comm...

I thought Ubuntu did that, but not Debian. Still, that's very different than what the author mentioned

I was honestly hoping it was a linux distro prepacked with euthanasia instructions tbh. But this is still good and funny.

Is there a name for this? I think about this all the time. I've always had a theory that some offensive words may actually be persisting longer solely because we essentially calcify their definitions and never allow them to evolve into new less offensive meanings.

This is well researched. See the Werther Effect. Casual, trivial, glamorized, or humorous framing behaves like contagion exposure.

How about Rogue-like Linux?

The world is cold and insensitive the majority of the time

Maybe you could strive to be better than that.

Zsh can suggest the corrections to commands and filename. I'm not sure if that's what they're talking about, but zsh has been around for awhile.

There are some bash options like cdspell or dirspell that are likely what the blog author is referring to.

Either that or they were using zsh with autocorrect preinstalled or had somehow rigged up the thefuck to execute and run on any error somehow? Either way seems like a terrible default.

I've never heard of it doing rm -rf, but apparnetly it did try to launch nethack under certain unknown preprocessor conditions:

https://feross.org/gcc-ownage/?1?1

https://gcc.gnu.org/pipermail/gcc/2002-January/074450.html

Anything that ships with a default zsh shell, which is a surprising number of distros actually.

Do any of the major ones?

Debian, Ubuntu, Fedora, Red Hat, etc. don't.

I wrote my own (much faster) such handler for Arch Linux. I even wrote a blog post about the design: https://vorpal.se/posts/2025/mar/25/filkoll-the-fastest-comm...

which is run by bash in the way I described.

In /etc/bash.bashrc:

# if the command-not-found package is installed, use it if [ -x /usr/lib/command-not-found -o -x /usr/share/command-not-found/command-not-found ]; then ... fi

This is well researched. See the Werther Effect. Casual, trivial, glamorized, or humorous framing behaves like contagion exposure.

The Werther Effect seems to be all about media reporting? All the reputable sources I could easily find suggest that talking about suicide casually does not inspire it.

How about Rogue-like Linux?

Maybe you could strive to be better than that.

Are you thinking of how early releases of GCC would (as an easter egg) run emacs, hack, or rogue upon encountering an unknown #pragma directive?

https://blog.djmnet.org/2008/08/05/a-pragmatic-decision/

Do any of the major ones?

Debian, Ubuntu, Fedora, Red Hat, etc. don't.

which is run by bash in the way I described.

In /etc/bash.bashrc:

# if the command-not-found package is installed, use it if [ -x /usr/lib/command-not-found -o -x /usr/share/command-not-found/command-not-found ]; then ... fi

I thought Ubuntu did that, but not Debian. Still, that's very different than what the author mentioned

Oh you might be right about Ubuntu vs Debian.. but I'm right about everything else I said. I went and looked at the source code.

The Werther Effect seems to be all about media reporting? All the reputable sources I could easily find suggest that talking about suicide casually does not inspire it.

Ultimate Ironman Linux: you can't save anything to the disk.

Oh you might be right about Ubuntu vs Debian.. but I'm right about everything else I said. I went and looked at the source code.

Ultimate Ironman Linux: you can't save anything to the disk.

You know how sometimes if you mistype a filename in Bash, it corrects your spelling and runs the command anyway?* Such as when changing directory, or opening a file.

I have an idea: Suicide Linux. Any time - any time - you type any remotely incorrect command, the interpreter creatively resolves it into rm -rf / and wipes your hard drive.

It's a game. Like walking a tightrope. You have to see how long you can continue to use the operating system before losing all your data.

Update 2011-12-26

Someone has turned Suicide Linux into a genuine Debian package. Good show!

A video demonstration is available. The reaction from the OS is actually rather underwhelming. You'd think the OS would raise some fairly urgent errors if you went around deleting parts of it?

Perhaps rm -rf / should be replaced with something with more verbose flags set. That way, when you run a bad command, you are told immediately that things are being deleted and you have a fighting chance to cancel the operation before your system becomes inoperable. This allows you to see how long you can work and how many files you can lose before the system fails entirely.

As another, slightly more serious suggestion, if Suicide Linux randomly deleted a single file without telling you every time you made a typographical error, it might be an interesting look into the stability of your operating system and an educational tool for diagnosing and repairing corrupted systems. I'm not pretending Suicide Linux has any genuine merit, of course.

* Update 2015-04-18

I suppose I should finally clear this up: The autocorrect functionality I originally described here was a feature of the first Linux systems I ever used, so I assumed it was how every Linux system worked by default. Since then I've come to understand that it's a completely optional extra doodad.

Update 2017-07-04

Someone (else?) has turned Suicide Linux into a Docker image. Here's the source.

docker run --rm -it -t tiagoad/suicide-linux

Update 2020-11-10

Clarified wording which previously falsely implied that I created the Suicide Linux Debian package or Docker image, which I did not.