SUMMARY: Accidentally removing a file with no backup...

From: jem@electriciti.com
Date: Thu Jul 18 1996 - 12:34:32 CDT


Hello,

Once again, I am astounded by the quick and varied responses.
There is always a solution from someone out there.

First of all, my original request boiled down to this:

> I just accidentally removed a script that one of my assistants
> just finished developing for me after 3 days hard work on his
> part.
>
> Is there anyway that I can recover this script?
>
> No, there are no backups of this machine.
> No, he did not make any copies of the script.

Some additional information to answer some of the responses:

Reason for no backups: Machine is in the process of going
  into production, has not been completely integrated into
  current network yet.

Reason for not unmounting and search raw disk: Script was
  being edited directly on the /usr partition. Kind of hard
  to unmount that and get anything done, but I guess it could
  have been done going into single user mode and mounting as
  read-only...

Already checked for backup files in /var/tmp and /tmp, none found.

And, no, neither of us had run a more or cat of the file prior to
removing the script.

Recovery suggestions:

1) cat/more/grep the raw disk file, using dd to grab the disk blocks
2) use file system debugger (fsdb), not on my 4.x system
2) no, tough luck

Preventative measures suggested:

1) alias rm to be rm -i
2) use a configuration management environment
3) integrate backups on new machines prior to allowing developmen
     on machine

Also, the script was not so critical that it could not be rewritten
by my assistant. In fact, that was the main reason I liked the
following response:

> From: Herbert Wengatz <hwe@uebemc.siemens.de>
>
> The good news is, that your assistant will be much faster now, because
> he already has all the needed knowledge and will perhaps do some things
> now more intelligently. :-)
> So your tool will be for sure better than the old one!
> (This is the way all programmers should work. - Write it once. Throw it
> all away. Write it again. - It's far better then!)

The script has already been rewritten and _is_ much better than before.
Thanks again to all of the following for their quick responses and good
advice for the future, you know, when I accidentally remove another
important file!

From: Leif Hedstrom <leif@netscape.com>
From: bill@aloft.att.com (Bill Shorter - Local Account)
From: james mularadelis <jamesm@matrix.newpaltz.edu>
From: Robbie Honerkamp <robbie@tomservo.mindspring.com>
From: "Mark P. Beckman" <beckman@bofh.fleet.capital.ge.com>
From: pobrien@draco.harvard.edu (Patrick O'Brien)
From: James Ashton <James.Ashton@keating.anu.edu.au>
From: "Steven L. Jenkins" <sjenkins@iastate.edu>
From: john@a3bgate.nai.net
From: mattias@txc.com (Mattias Zhabinskiy)
From: Herbert Wengatz <hwe@uebemc.siemens.de>
From: gibian@stars1.hanscom.af.mil (Marc S. Gibian)
From: mrs@cadem.mc.xerox.com ("Michael Salehi x22725")
From: shiga@mis.la.cl.AirTouch.COM (Stan Higa)
From: "Edgar V.S. Der-Danieliantz" <edd@aic.net>
From: "Trevor Paquette" <TrevorPaquette@aec.ca>
From: Richard Pieri <ratinox@unilab.dfci.harvard.edu>
From: Gerhard den Hollander <gerhard@jason.nl>
From: sesharao@lsil.com (Sesharao Patchipala)



This archive was generated by hypermail 2.1.2 : Fri Sep 28 2001 - 23:11:05 CDT