On: A Saner Windows Command Line

[dr_zoidberg]

I agree with you (was about to post something similar), and wanted to add that some unix commands (which become part of the soul of bash scripts), are sometimes named in weird, unintuitive ways. For one thing, one potentially dangerous command is simply called "dd", and its man page[0] says next to nothing at all about its true power, uses and danger.

[0] http://linux.die.net/man/1/dd

[Karunamon → dr_zoidberg]

I don't think it's dd itself that's dangerous, rather the fact that it's usage is often paired with root access to raw device nodes on the filesystem.

Even innocuous things like tee, cat, and bash output redirection can mess up your system if you blast something into /dev/sda.

[dr_zoidberg → Karunamon]

Indeed, without root access you don't get to screw a disk with dd. But let's also admit that saying dd is a tool for copying files is a bit like saying that with a katana sword you can slice pizza... Technically true, but you're likely to get hurt in the process.