i just did a rm -rf /*r as root!!!

bruce bedouglas at earthlink.net
Fri Apr 22 20:28:40 UTC 2005


sorry....

thought i had already answered the backup issue at the beginning...

i have no backups, the system hadn't gotten to the point where i was ready
to back it up...

the system is FC2, ext3, and i have the '/usr/etc', as well as the '/var'
dirs i also seem to have a great deal of the rpm headr files. although,
since i don't have any idea as to exactly what/when i've put apps on the
system, i don't really know what might be missing...

as i was saying, it appears that the 'rm -rf /*r' somehow only blew away the
'/usr/bin' dir...

my question now, is there a way to reinstall/upgrade/etc.. FC2 so that i
only do a minimum installation, and not kill the upgraded apps that i
already have on the system? ie, a kind of only install a little bit!!

if this is possible, then i could/should be able to do the 'rpm --verfiy -a'
and rebuild/restore any rpms....

i thought about simply copying the '/usr/bin' from the rescue cd to the hard
drive.. and then doing the 'rpm --verfiy -a' but i'm not sure that that
process would get me back to where i need to be..


thanks...

bruce


-----Original Message-----
From: redhat-list-bounces at redhat.com
[mailto:redhat-list-bounces at redhat.com]On Behalf Of Ed Wilts
Sent: Friday, April 22, 2005 10:55 AM
To: bedouglas at earthlink.net; General Red Hat Linux discussion list
Subject: Re: i just did a rm -rf /*r as root!!!


On Fri, Apr 22, 2005 at 08:59:11AM -0700, bruce wrote:
> ok...
>
> i have the rescue cd. i can see the /usr/bin on the rescue cd, and i can
> copy it to the new '/usr/bin' on the system where i did the 'rm -rf...'.
>
> my question, is once i do this, how/what do i need to do to get back the
> rest of the system... when i compare the '/usr/bin' on a FC3 resuce cd,
with
> the FC3 '/usr/bin' dir, i see a great deal of difference in the number of
> files.

You've never answered the question as to whether or not you have
backups.  If you do, restore your old /usr/bin files.

Since you've got a valid rpm database, you'll need to do the rpm -Va to
verify what's there and what isn't.  Once you've identified which files
are missing (and there will be a bunch for

> or should i just get the FC2 iso cds and do a reinstall. keep in mind that
> i've made a lot of chanegs, new rpms, updates, etc... and i'd rather not
> blow those away.

As we've pointed out before, this is the real way to get your system
back to normal.  Everything else is a hack to get you close but you'll
never be assured it is fully back to where it was.  What you "rather not
blow away" and what you need to do to ensure the integrity of your
system are not the same.  You've said it's a critical system and you
apparently don't have restorable backups.  This might be a good time to
start over and do it right.

One thing that still confuses me is how you only deleted /usr/bin when
the command you gave us would have deleted a lot more than that.

--
Ed Wilts, RHCE
Mounds View, MN, USA
mailto:ewilts at ewilts.org
Member #1, Red Hat Community Ambassador Program

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