True undelete functionality is largely missing in Linux. There are a number of packages
available which instead provide new commands for deleting and copying
which move deleted files into a "wastebasket" directory. The files can
be recovered until cleaned out automatically by background processing. KDE and GNOME both make use of that type of functionality.
True undelete functionality for the ext2fs file system is being worked on, but don't hold your breath.
However, if you are using the ReiserFS file system, there is somthing you can do. Back up your entire disk, then type (as root):
reiserfsck --rebuild-tree /dev/hda1 |
Note: you will need to replace /dev/hda1 with the correct location of the hard disk partition you are recovering files from.
That should resurrect all the files that have been deleted. It is very dangerous though, and should only be done as a last resort.
The Midnight Commander file manager provides an undelete facility that uses Ext2 file system library functions and an undelete directory for each file system. Commercial distribution packages of MC may or may not have this feature enabled, so be sure to look in the source code distribution for instructions on how to enable the undelete feature.
Alternatively, you can search the raw disk device which holds the file system in question. This is hard work, and you will need to be logged in as root to do this. But it can be done. Run grep on the raw device; e.g.:
grep -b 'bookmarks' /dev/hda |
If the data has not been overwritten, you should be able to recover it with a text editor.
[Dave Cinege, Daniel Novotny]
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