-f

I’m following a discussion at the moment, where someone has done some havoc to his data. This discussion inspired me to write this: -f. The force switch. Personally i believe -f should be protected by key that you just get when you can explain the whole subsystem that has such a switch and the reason why you need -f.

• -f is not about forcing round pegs into square holes.
• -f is about forcing pegs known to be square into holes known to be squares that doesn't fit, because some idiot dented the edges of the hole.
• -f is not about "I know it better than the machine. This command is correct". Believe me ... in almost all cases the system has a point in preventing you from doing something.
• -f is about telling the system "I'm fully aware of what i'm doing at the moment"
• -f is about the system telling you "Everything from here is even more your fault than usual"

</noautobr>There are situations when a -f is feasible. However just do it, when you know the 7 following things:

• You know, that a command should work.
• You know, what a command is normally doing.
• You know, why a command that should work doesn't work.
• You know, that you can't repair the issue that led to the "command doesn't work" by other means than -f.
• You know, that the chance of doing greater harm to the data is low enough to risk the data.
• You know, that your backup is working, when you can harm persistent data by using -f
• You know, that your restore is working, when you can harm persistent data by using -f

</noautobr>Unsure about just a single point? Then don’t use -f until you are sure.