I accidentally untarred archive intended to be extracted in root directory, which among others included some files for /etc directory.
I went on to rm -rv ~/etc, but I quickly typed rm -rv /etc instead, and hit enter, while using a root account.
Its a pretty common Windows server practice to just throw random shit on the root directory of the server. I’m guilty of this at times when there isn’t a better option available to me, but I at least use a dedicated directory at the root for dumping random crap and organize the files within that directory (and delete unneeded files when done) so that it doesn’t create more work later.
I mean, there is a home directory for the root-user, that you could use for these things.
Root’s home directory only works if you’re sshing in as root (not a great practice, although its certainly not as bad as on Windows thanks to key auth. You can simply revoke the keys of the admin you just let go rather than resetting a bunch of passwords). The reason its common practice in Windows Server administration is a combination of common practices: having dedicated admin accounts in AD for each administrator, Windows lacking a decent directory for content shared between users, and of course the general laziness that Windows administration attracts and fosters.
Ahh, good old /opt/