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

[Gérard Milmeister]

On Thu, 2005-04-21 at 14:42 -0700, bruce wrote:
> hi...
> 
> i stupidly just did a 'rm -rf /*r' and i understand that there's no way to
> redo/undo this command.. it seems to have blown away my /usr/bin dir..
> although, for all i know, i may have screwed up a lot more...
> 
> my question, is there someway that i can reinstall the /usr/bin dir.. or am
> i pretty much f*ed up. i have fedora core 2.
> 
> this is a critical system that i was putting alot of things on.. i haven't
> done anything else to the box after my mistake..
On a critical system, best would be to backup the important data (using
a rescue CD for example) and reinstall. Everything else is too much of
hassle to be worth it.
During the last 10 years I several times did something stupid similarly
to you. What helps is that, when you notice your error, immediately shut
off the computer, WITHOUT proper shutdown. The most important thing is
that /usr inode is still somethere in the filesystem. With a rescue CD
you can then fsck the damaged filesystem, then look into /lost+found. If
you are lucky, you will find your /usr directory there, although not
with this name.

-- 
Gérard Milmeister
Langackerstrasse 49
CH-8057 Zürich