Let me tell you one thing:
Since the very first day in which I joined this email list, this
person, Woodchuck, has been answering every single question I asked,
regardless of bad exposition of the problem, wrong formulation, how
difficult, boring, slow-witted, dull, complicated or even handcuffed,
impeded, obtuse and hebetudinous the questions were.
But not only did I get every time an in-detail and kind answer of this
gentleman. I got it wrapped in what one could qualify as a very
exquisite inkhorn literary style. He combines a delicate sense of
humour with the most rigorous exegesis and analysis of the problem,
whilst providing you with the exact answer.
It is because of people like him that I stubbornly cling to OpenBSD.
I have been using computers since 1997, which is not bad, taking into
account my age. Last time I used windows it was 3.11. Then I changed
to SYSV and, only recently, two years ago, I converted to OpenBSD.
This tedious paragraph is to state the following: I am used to mailing
lists. I have "met" ("e-met"? sorry for ruining your idiom) many users
in those mailing lists. But a jewel, a gemstone, an intaglio as
Woodchuck I have only seen in the obsd lists.
My irrationality is this: If a person like he is using OpenBSD, there
is no other possible software that ever should touch any hardware I
possess. I say "irrationality" because the many reasons he could
teutonicly enumerate very possibly are far away from what I can
understand. I, thus, must and will simply have Faith.
I would like to express herewith not only my gratitude to Woodchuck in
public, but also my big admiration to him.
Long life to Big Marmot
Pau Amaro Seoane
2008/7/8 Woodchuck <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>:
> On Mon, 7 Jul 2008, macintoshzoom wrote:
>
>> I deleted a directory from an OpenBSD slice from my 2nd HD, and I need
>> to recover a single file.
>>
>> I tried : http://myutil.com/2008/1/15/undelete-unrm-for-openbsd-4-2-with-dls
>> but failed :
>>
>> # dls /dev/wd1x > /xxx/xx/undelete.bin
>> Sector offset supplied is larger than disk image (maximum: 0)
>
> Nobody here is likely to be familiar with this software or
> its error messages. Why not ask its author?
>
>> Help & thanks.
>
> If it is in a ffs filesystem, and it probably is, undeletion is a
> fruitless task. It can be done. But it is not easy, and the skill
> has died out among Unix people under the age of about 50. (The
> chief tool, fsedit(8), is no longer distributed. Another useful
> tool, dumpfs(8) is still around.) It required working knowledge
> of the lowest details of a filesystem, sufficient knowledge to build
> and dissect a filesystem inode by inode. fsedit() was better than
> just using a hex editor. I have, *sigh*, used it, on SYSV in the
> mid 1980's. It was terrifying. I rebuilt a whole lousy filesystem
> with corrupted inodes. Never again...
>
> The file might be recoverable if you had pulled the power plug
> (not run "shutdown") immediately after the rm. But it would require
> knowledge. (The dls webpage says to run shutdown: that is a mistake.
> Shutdown sync's the disks by default. You wanted shutdown -n and
> probably "shutdown -n -k now", unless the rm'ed file was on /, in
> which case you pull the plug, no not the off switch, you pull the
> plug from the wall or hit a big red panic button that throws the
> circuit breakers.
>
> You've asked on three or four mailing lists. Everyone says: forget
> it. One more time: forget it. This is one of the small pleasures,
> in the category of Schadenfreude, of admining unix, telling users
> that "Your file hath gaily fled thither, where the woodbine twineth."
> When it's the boss's file, you add, "You should have approved my
> request for more backup tapes."
>
> This isn't MS-DOS. That's the only filesystem I've heard of until
> lately that even had the hope of undeletion. Perhaps these new-fangled
> journal filesystem like the one written by the unfortunate Mr.
> Reiser, have such a feature. Perhaps certain RAID configurations
> have such things.
>
> Young people seem to like undeletion. They are not used to unix
> yet. They want their Ubuntu, to which they are welcome.
>
> If the file is valuable, you might hire a consultant, pay $1000
> a day, and probably be disappointed.
>
> Let me put it this way: removing a file is a lot like burning a
> paper document: you are left with ashes. If you don't stir the ashes,
> and study them with a microscope in a laboratory, you might discover
> what was on the document.
>
> If you have been using the filesystem mounted at all, you've been
> stirring the ashes. Inodes (the places where data about files
> are stored) are overwritten and reused quickly. Some of this is
> for security. When you rm "/home/stuff/bomb.jpg" as the police
> are breaking down your door, you would like at least some assurance
> that it will not reappear to a $5 utility in the hands of po-lees
> egg-spurt with a mail-order certificate in "Disks 'n' Stuff" and
> a CD with "magic cop tools" on it.
>
> Try that dls thing again, but find someone who has used it.
> Try asking on a FreeBSD list, there are many more users of FreeBSD,
> and they tend to be hopers and believers in magic.
>
> Dave
> --
> The future isn't what it used to be.
> -- G'kar
> _______________________________________________
> Openbsd-newbies mailing list
> [email protected]
> http://mailman.theapt.org/listinfo/openbsd-newbies
>
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