Likewise, but mine was when I was first learning Linux in the mid 90's I'd written a script to clean out /tmp (since it wasn't a virtual fs back then) at boot.

Likewise, but mine was when I was first learning Linux in the mid 90's I'd written a script to clean out /tmp (since it wasn't a virtual fs back then) at boot. Problem is that it hadn't successfully changed to /tmp but was running instead in /etc Goodbye /etc, it was nice knowing you... first I knew about it was when my box spectacularly failed to boot. However, this was _the_ best learning experience of my life. No internet (since that was my only computer at the time) gradually rebuilding /etc by hand from a root prompt.