From wpm@ms.com

A bug in File​::Path caused some very serious outages here. A bug in
code which *uses* File​::Path called rmtree() with an uninitialized first
argument. Unfortunately, rmtree() behaves by defaulting to assume
that you want to remove /.

This is *bad* default behavior. The patch below will at least check
that $roots has a true value, and will return 0 otherwise.

This applies to all the existing perl releases, that include
File​::Path 1.04 or 1.0401, most importantly including all the latest
maintenance releases.

*** /ms/dist/perl5/PROJ/core/5.00503/lib/perl5/File/Path.pm Thu Apr 22 11​:52​:32 1999
--- /ms/user/w/wpm/tmp/Path.pm Tue Jun 15 17​:37​:48 1999
***************
*** 148,157 ****
  my($roots, $verbose, $safe) = @​_;
  my(@​files);
  my($count) = 0;
- $roots = [$roots] unless ref $roots;
  $verbose ||= 0;
  $safe ||= 0;
 
  my($root);
  foreach $root (@​{$roots}) {
  $root =~ s#/$##;
--- 148,164 ----
  my($roots, $verbose, $safe) = @​_;
  my(@​files);
  my($count) = 0;
  $verbose ||= 0;
  $safe ||= 0;
 
+ if ( defined($roots) && length($roots) ) {
+ $roots = [$roots] unless ref $roots;
+ }
+ else {
+ carp "No root path(s) specified\n";
+ return 0;
+ }
+
  my($root);
  foreach $root (@​{$roots}) {
  $root =~ s#/$##;

This perlbug was built using Perl 5.00503 - Thu May 20 11​:43​:00 EDT 1999
It is being executed now by Perl 5.00503 - Thu May 20 11​:45​:48 EDT 1999.

Site configuration information for perl 5.00503​:

Configured by wpm at Thu May 20 11​:45​:48 EDT 1999.

Summary of my perl5 (5.0 patchlevel 5 subversion 3) configuration​:
  Platform​:
  osname=solaris, osvers=2.5.1, archname=sun4-solaris
  uname='sunos sascs1 5.5.1 generic_103640-24 sun4u sparc sunw,ultra-enterprise '
  hint=recommended, useposix=true, d_sigaction=define
  usethreads=undef useperlio=undef d_sfio=undef
  Compiler​:
  cc='cc', optimize='-O', gccversion=
  cppflags='-DAPPLLIB_EXP="/ms/dist/perl5/VERS/5.00503-core/lib/perl5​:/ms/dist/perl5/VERS/5.005-core/lib/perl5" -I/usr/local/include'
  ccflags ='-DAPPLLIB_EXP="/ms/dist/perl5/VERS/5.00503-core/lib/perl5​:/ms/dist/perl5/VERS/5.005-core/lib/perl5" -I/usr/local/include'
  stdchar='unsigned char', d_stdstdio=define, usevfork=false
  intsize=4, longsize=4, ptrsize=4, doublesize=8
  d_longlong=define, longlongsize=8, d_longdbl=define, longdblsize=16
  alignbytes=8, usemymalloc=n, prototype=define
  Linker and Libraries​:
  ld='cc', ldflags =' -L/usr/local/lib'
  libpth=/usr/local/lib /lib /usr/lib /usr/ccs/lib
  libs=-lsocket -lnsl -ldb -ldl -lm -lc -lcrypt
  libc=/lib/libc.so, so=so, useshrplib=false, libperl=libperl.a
  Dynamic Linking​:
  dlsrc=dl_dlopen.xs, dlext=so, d_dlsymun=undef, ccdlflags=' '
  cccdlflags='-KPIC', lddlflags='-G -L/usr/local/lib'

Locally applied patches​:
 

@​INC for perl 5.00503​:
  /ms/dist/perl5/VERS/5.00503-core/lib/perl5
  /ms/dist/perl5/VERS/5.005-core/lib/perl5
  /ms/dist/perl5/PROJ/core/5.00503/exec/lib/perl5
  /ms/dist/perl5/PROJ/core/5.00503/common/lib/perl5
  /ms/dist/perl5/VERS/5.00503/lib/perl5
  /ms/dist/perl5/VERS/5.005/lib/perl5
  /ms/dist/perl5/lib/perl5
  /ms/dist/aurora/lib/perl5
  .

Environment for perl 5.00503​:
  HOME=/ms/user/w/wpm
  LANG=C
  LANGUAGE (unset)
  LD_LIBRARY_PATH=/usr/dt/lib​:/opt/softbench/lib​:/usr/openwin/lib​:/ms/dist/aurora/lib
  LOGDIR (unset)
  PATH=/ms/dist/msjava/PROJ/jdk/1.2/exec/bin​:/ms/dist/perl5/bin​:/ms/dist/i18n/bin​:/ms/dist/afs/PROJ/vms/beta/common/bin​:/ms/dist/afs/PROJ/vms/beta/common/sbin​:/ms/dist/msde/PROJ/msde/1.4/bin​:/ms/user/w/wpm/bin​:/ms/user/w/wpm/bin/@​sys​:/ms/dist/aurora/hackbin​:/ms/dist/aurora/bin​:/bin​:/usr/ccs/bin​:/usr/ucb​:/ms/dist/fsf/bin​:/ms/dist/afs/bin​:/ms/dist/aurora/sbin​:/usr/sbin​:/ms/dist/afs/sbin​:.​:/ms/dist/eoffice/bin​:/ms/dist/mq/sbin​:/ms/dist/mq/bin​:/opt/mqm/bin​:/opt/mqm/samp/bin​:/ms/dist/syb/bin​:/usr/dt/bin​:/usr/openwin/bin
  PERL_BADLANG (unset)
  SHELL=/bin/ksh

From [Unknown Contact. See original ticket]

fixed in change @​2695

From The RT System itself

fixed in change @​2695