Ralph Shumaker wrote: > James G. Sack (jim) wrote: >> Ralph Shumaker wrote: >> >>> Someone here told me a convenient way to create a link in Nautilus, >>> namely dragging a file or directory to where I want the link, but before >>> letting go of the mouse drag button, press Alt. Letting go with the Alt >>> key down gives a little popup menu. >>> >>> Now, I'd like to know of an easy way to delete *just* the link, not what >>> it's pointing to. I'd like an easy mouse-driven way, but presently I >>> cannot even find a command line way. man ln doesn't give anything >>> useful that I can see. apropos didn't show much of promise either. >>> >>> I have a way to do it, but it involves too many steps, namely renaming >>> what the link points to, deleting the now-dangling link, then renaming >>> the object back. >>> >> >> I believe you are trying to make it more complicated than it is! >> Just delete it. With point and right-click, drag-to-trash (yuk), or >> command line rm. The link (only) will be removed -- not the target. Try >> it on links to some test files just to reassure yourself. >> >> Regards, >> ..jim >> > > I tried *one* thing you suggested on a test file. But like an idiot, I > tried another thing you suggested on the real thing (without testing > first), namely rm linkName on a command line. How do I recover the > target that got dumped along with the link? (And no, I don't have a > backup.) > Short answer: Sorry. Probably no good way.
There is a very painful kind of undelete in ext2 (ext3, too I presume), that I have used a long time ago. It's available inside mc (midnight commander), but .. 1) it probably is critically dependent on the filesystem storage allocation unit not having been reused since the deletion. I don't know how to judge, but I'm sure the chances of the storage space getting overwritten with something else is a monotonically increasing value. 2) I don't even remember offhand how to use it, but I kind-of remember it being a bit complicated/non-intuitive and so, it would probably be best rehearsed on a test system first. 3) In the best of cases, you may have to examine *lots* (>= thousands) of files in the lost&found directory to find your deleted file, and then you may need to binary edit it and/or paste pieces together. This is not a cheap operation. Some customer of a prior employer once asked me why anyone would use an OS that didn't have an undelete in it's default filesystem. I didn't have an answer. I guess the best answer might be if you want undelete, then use the "trash" feature (and don't use the command line). Maybe other people will contribute other answers. Bottom line: if it's priceless[1], then you may want to spend a lot of time/money to recover it. If not, well, maybe it's just a lesson learned. :-( Most of us have done that (shhhh..). :-[ [1] I'm sure if it were priceless, you would have a backup. Regards, ..jim -- [email protected] http://www.kernel-panic.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/kplug-newbie
