It <i>could</i> happen in the past. Actually Solaris 10 was the first to fix it:<p><a href="http:&#x2F;&#x2F;web.archive.org&#x2F;web&#x2F;20061021192240&#x2F;http:&#x2F;&#x2F;blogs.sun.com&#x2F;jbeck&#x2F;date&#x2F;20041001" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;web.archive.org&#x2F;web&#x2F;20061021192240&#x2F;http:&#x2F;&#x2F;blogs.sun.c...</a><p>GNU coreutils changed the default to --preserve-root some years later, in version 6.2:<p><a href="http:&#x2F;&#x2F;git.savannah.gnu.org&#x2F;cgit&#x2F;coreutils.git&#x2F;tree&#x2F;ChangeLog-2006#n1570" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;git.savannah.gnu.org&#x2F;cgit&#x2F;coreutils.git&#x2F;tree&#x2F;ChangeLo...</a>