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Top Forums UNIX for Advanced & Expert Users Accidentally deleting directory/files Post 39656 by OllieTech on Wednesday 27th of August 2003 05:39:40 AM
Old 08-27-2003
I agree with Cameron, backups are the way to go in UNIX.

There is no undelete command that runs in UNIX. DOS runs differently than UNIX. Unix, there are processes running all the time, and once you deleted that space, its fair game to be written over by another process. So it is possible that your file area has been written over by process data tens or hundreds of times.

I know its very frustrating...

If no backup system is in place, get one! If you can't then do something like

1. Make a dir called /deleteditems
2. Instead of using rm, use mv [filename/dir] /deleteditems
3. Have a script that runs rm on any file that has been placed in the /deletedfiles that has been in that dir for 10 days or whatever time period you may like.
 

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cp(1)							      General Commands Manual							     cp(1)

Name
       cp - copy file data

Syntax
       cp [ -f ] [ -i ] [ -p ] file1 file2

       cp [ -f ] [ -i ] [ -p ] [ -r ] file... directory

       cp [ -f ] [ -i ] [ -p ] [ -r ] directory... directory

Description
       The command copies file1 onto file2.  The mode and owner of file2 are preserved if it already existed; the mode of file1 is used otherwise.
       Note that the command will not copy a file onto itself.

       In the second form, one or more files are copied into the directory with their original file names.

       In the third form, one or more source directories are copied into the destination directory with their original file names.

Options
       -f   Forces existing destination pathnames to be removed before copying, without prompting for confirmation.  The -i option is  ignored	if
	    the -f option is specified.

       -i   Prompts  user  with  the name of file whenever the copy will cause an old file to be overwritten. A yes answer will cause to continue.
	    Any other answer will prevent it from overwriting the file.

       -p   Preserves (duplicates) in the copies the modification time, access time, file mode, user ID, and group ID as allowed  by  the  permis-
	    sions of the source files, ignoring the present umask.

       -r   Copies  directories.  Entire directory trees, including their subtrees and the individual files they contain, are copied to the speci-
	    fied destination directory. The directory, its subtrees, and the individual files retain their original names. For	example,  to  copy
	    the directory including all of its subtrees and files, into the directory enter the following command:
	    cp -r reports news

See Also
       cat(1), pr(1), mv(1)

																	     cp(1)
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