[conspire] Why you should always test your backups

[Rick Moen]

Quoting Dire Red (deirdre at deirdre.net):

> 2. And then there's the time I used killall on HP-UX, knowing only its
>    Linux use. And yes, I did it as root. (That is basically a kill -9
>    everything right now.)

To elaborate, quoting the warning at
https://www.cyberciti.biz/faq/unix-linux-killall-command-examples-usage-syntax/
:

   Q: I am a new Linux and Unix user and sysadmin. How do I kill processes
      by name instead by PID on Linux or Unix-like systems?

   A: The kill command kills process by PID (process ID). To kill
      process by name, use killall command.

      Please note that killall command on AIX/Solairs/HP-UX and few
      other traditional Unix operating systems cancels all processes 
      except the calling process i.e. it terminates all active processes. 
      The command discussed here is about killing process by name and 
      tested on the following platforms only:

      1. Linux
      2. Apple OS X Unix
      3. FreeBSD

      [...]

So, lesson three for today is:  Never assume without checking that 
commands familiar from one *ix work the same way on another, especially
if running them with high privilege and they are potentially destructive
in normal intended operation.