[KLUG Members] help for longtime (but novice) user who finally managed to misuse rm...?

[Bruce Smith]

> > What direct were you in?  The root directory (/), or elsewhere?
> 
> My home (user) directory--and logged in as a regular user.  So the good 
> news is, the system shouldn't be disturbed.  The bad news is, the 
> deleted files are of actual importance to me personally!
> 
> > I don't know about logdump, but maybe it's a jfs only command?
> > You need to run the ext2/3 commands on an ext3 partition.
> 
> Yes, I think it's part of a JFS package.  I did run it on an ext3 
> partition, but /while/ that partition was mounted and being used.  

Bad idea, in both cases.  Using a JFS recovery tool on ext3 can do
nothing but VERY BAD things to your disk.  Using any recovery tool 
on a mounted partition is also bad.

> (I 
> only have one linux partition besides /boot.)  Should I reboot to a 
> rescuecd, with the linux partition unmounted, and run logdump off that?

Your partition should be unmounted.  If /home is separate then you can
umount it and run tools.  If it's part of root, then you need to boot
something else like a rescue CD.

And make sure you only use ext2/3 rescue tools!  :-)

>   Where do I put the output file then?  I'm nervous to reboot in case I 
> destroy "evidence", but maybe I should.

I don't think you're going to recover any deleted files from ext3.
This will only do you any good if your partition is corrupted.

Otherwise, focus on recovering from backups.

 - BS