Linux: Don’t Type “Y” — Just Press Enter

By Daniel Miessler on February 22nd, 2007: Tagged as Geek | Linux | Sysadmin

When apt your package manager is prompting you regarding an install decision, like so:

Do you want to continue [Y/n]?

Just press enter. The “Y” being capitalized means it’s the default. :)

I think we all know this, but so many of us still type the “Y” out of habit. This is my attempt to free you from doing so.

  • Carl M

    As always when using default entries, be sure to LOOK at what the default choice is before you make it (at least if you are not in a familiar situation).

    I was formatting 100 floppies I bought once (yes, there was a time you had to FORMAT floppies). I’d click on the icon for floppy on the desktop (this was on an AMIGA 2000 if anyone is curious), and hit enter twice (Format the disc? Y/n) (Are you SURE? Y/n).

    Somewhere along the line I clicked on the icon for the hard drive. (When it didn’t finish formatting in the expected time, my brain clicked into ALERT mode and I saw that my hard drive was being reformatted.) Lesson learned. (Fortunately, hard drives weren’t THAT big back then. :)

  • Carl M

    As always when using default entries, be sure to LOOK at what the default choice is before you make it (at least if you are not in a familiar situation).

    I was formatting 100 floppies I bought once (yes, there was a time you had to FORMAT floppies). I’d click on the icon for floppy on the desktop (this was on an AMIGA 2000 if anyone is curious), and hit enter twice (Format the disc? Y/n) (Are you SURE? Y/n).

    Somewhere along the line I clicked on the icon for the hard drive. (When it didn’t finish formatting in the expected time, my brain clicked into ALERT mode and I saw that my hard drive was being reformatted.) Lesson learned. (Fortunately, hard drives weren’t THAT big back then. :)


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