Path: usenet.ee.pdx.edu!not-for-mail
From: rootd@ee.pdx.edu (Conan the Librarian)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.sun.admin
Subject: Re: Help! I accidently deleted /etc :-(
Date: 11 Aug 1994 20:05:46 -0700
Organization: Portland State University, Portland, OR
Lines: 52
Message-ID: <32eoua$buv@potrzebie.ee.pdx.edu>
NNTP-Posting-Host: potrzebie.ee.pdx.edu


When we last left our story, our hero had run openwindows
as root, dragged a directory around a little bit, let go
of the mouse button, and watched the directory (/etc !!)
disappear!

Since then, our hero has received some advice regarding
how to restore the /etc directory structure.

My comment:

First, I'd like to categorically deny that I once ran
openwindows as root, and made the same mistake.  Rumors
to that effect are absolutely false!

Hypothetically speaking, however, had I made the same mistake,
I would have realized a few things:

First, when you drag a folder around in openwindows, and release
it in the same folder in which it originated, an rm -rf command
is NOT generated!  The actual command that is generated is:

mv <directory-name> <directory-name>

Second, if this command were to be executed (successfully), the
directory would be moved inside itself.

Third, non-root users are not allowed to do this, so if a sun
testing engineer tried this (as non root) he would not even report
it as a bug (nothing's supposed to happen, and nothing did happen,
so lets not worry about it and go do another 15 sendmail patches...)

Fourth, if a root user did this, it would appear that the directory
structure was deleted.  In reality, however, the root inode no
longer points to the /etc inode; instead the /etc inode has
two entries which point to the /etc inode: the normal . link,
and another "etc" directory which is within the etc directory!

Fifth, that's just an "unreachable" inode (I can't remember the
precise term).

Sixth, that's what fsck fixes!  If I had made that stupid mistake, I
would have found a directory (labeled with an inode number) in lost+
found after the next fsck run.

Running fsck may be a problem because /etc is on your root partition.
Someone who knows the answer to that for certain can address that
problem.

Darrell Root
rootd@ohsu.edu