Questions about disabling {CTRL-ALT-DEL}

[Robert Brockway]

On Fri, 26 Jun 2009, Lennart Sorensen wrote:

> #!/bin/bash
> /usr/games/cowsay "This is a server.  Not your local test unit or router.  Are you sure you want to `basename $0` $HOSTNAME?"
> sleep 1
> echo ""
> echo "If so please use /sbin/`basename $0` explicitly."
>
> Helps avoid embarrassing reboots of things you might ssh to once in a while.
>
> Certainly seems to get people's attention.

Nice.

I continue to drum into sysadmins (at every opportunity) that "shutdown 
now" is not something you do on a server unless it is melting in front of 
you.  Even a one minute warning gives users a chance to respond, other 
sysadmins a chance to respond[1][2] and gives you a graceful exit strategy 
if you issue the command on the wrong box.

[1] Another sysadmin can issue a shutdown -c to cancel a scheduled 
shutdown.  They might know something you don't, so give them a chance.

[2] When consulting one day I had the owner of a box issue a 'shutdown 
now' without warning when I was in the middle of editing crucial system 
config files.  I managed to get :q! typed before my shell exited or the 
box would have hung on boot.  I had to enlighten him after that incident 
:)

Cheers,

Rob

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