Re: Lost+found

[Eric Sandeen <sandeen@sandeen.net>]

Justin Piszcz wrote:
> 
> On Wed, 9 Apr 2008, Barry Naujok wrote:
> 
>> On Tue, 08 Apr 2008 15:20:33 +1000, Jeffrey Sandel <webmaster@javainbaja.com> 
>> wrote:
>>
>>> Recently I ran xfs_repair due to a firmware upgrade on an unmounted
>>> disk. The repair recovered the data but moved it to the lost+found
>>> directory.
>>>
>>> How do I recover file names and ownership?
>> The only real options you have AFAIK is the file command to try and identify
>> what type of file it is and just manually inspecting the files.
>>
>> Then, you might be able to derive its filename and where it came from.
>>
>> Regards,
>> Barry.
>>
> 
> Is there any chance this process could ever be improved so that the files 
> are restored back to their original locations or there is something that 
> keeps track of where they were located?

The whole reason they're in lost+found is because they are "orphaned" -
allocated & in use but not referenced by any directory... so the best
xfs_repair can do is rename to lost+found with the inode number.

Crosses my mind that one could probably write a generic tool which could
work with a package manager db to check file md5sums in /lost+found, if
the files happen to be system files installed via a package.... but if
they're files from your homedir or whatnot, it's tougher.

-Eric