Re: Undelete files on ext3 ??

Mike Waychison
2003-01-07T20:50:16Z

Richard B. Johnson wrote:

>
>There is a project waiting for someone who wants
>to contribute. It only slightly involves the kernel,
>but is quite useful.
>
>As more people are switching from the Redmond stuff
>to Linux, many have "learned" from the Redmond stuff
>that `rm` isn't permanent. You can always get it
>back from the `wastebasket`. Of course, the Unix
>gurus know you can't. Therefore, it's time for somebody
>to put a 'dumpster` in all the Linux file-systems.
>Somebody should then modify `rm` and the kernel unlink
>to `mv' files to the dumpster directory on the
>file-system, instead of really deleting them. Then,
>just like the Redmond stuff, a separate program can
>be used to clear out the "dumpster" or `mv` them back.
>
>Since sys_unlink() takes only a path-name, there isn't
>a current mechanism whereby it could take a flag to
>tell it to 'really' delete a file (or is there?). So,
>maybe we need a new kernel function? Just hacking existing
>utilities won't do the whole thing because we need programs
>that delete files to transparently put them into the
>dumpster as well.
>
>The wastebasket should be called a hopper or a dumpster so
>Redmond doesn't get confused and send lawyers.
>
>
>

libtrash - http://www.m-arriaga.net/software/libtrash/

It implements this functionality in userspace by intercepting libc calls
on a very configurable level (per-user/per-directory). I've tried it
out in the past and it seems to work nicely, although some temp files
dropped by programs are sometimes also dropped into the ~/trash directory..

Mike Waychison

>Cheers,
>Dick Johnson
>Penguin : Linux version 2.4.18 on an i686 machine (797.90 BogoMips).
>Why is the government concerned about the lunatic fringe? Think about it.
>
>
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