File Recovery | SEASnet

SEASnet takes a snapshot of your account several times a day. These snapshots allow you to restore data from your account, including accidentally deleted files and directories.

Useful commands:

ls -ltu lists the time a snapshot was made
ls -l lists the last time a file was modified

In the following example, Bob restores a file he deleted by mistake while working on his project.

BOLD denotes commands.
Denotes comments.
Denotes screen display.

server:Home/CS174(65)rm *.cc   <- OOPSIE! Accidentally deleted
server:Home/CS174(66)date         file on May 10 10:20:54
Mon May 10 10:20:54 PDT 1999
server:Home/CS174(67)cd        <- Switch to your home directory
server:Home(68)cd .snapshot    <- Then to the snapshot directory
server:Home/.snapshot(69)ls -l File was deleted on May 10 10:20:54, so the
total 96                       hourly.0 snapshot will have the file
drwx--x--x  15 bob      csugrad     1234 May 09 21:30 hourly.0 <- This one
drwx--x--x  15 bob      csugrad     1234 May 08 18:14 hourly.1
drwx--x--x  15 bob      csugrad     1234 May 08 18:14 hourly.2
drwx--x--x  15 bob      csugrad     1234 May 08 18:14 hourly.3
drwx--x--x  15 bob      csugrad     1234 May 08 18:14 nightly.0
drwx--x--x  15 bob      csugrad     1234 May 07 21:00 nightly.1
drwx--x--x  14 bob      csugrad     1234 May 06 20:11 nightly.2
drwx--x--x  14 bob      csugrad     1234 May 05 17:06 nightly.3
drwx--x--x  14 bob      csugrad     1234 May 04 18:37 nightly.4
drwx--x--x  14 bob      csugrad     1234 May 03 23:48 nightly.5
drwx--x--x  14 bob      csugrad     1234 May 01 23:33 nightly.6
drwx--x--x  15 bob      csugrad     1234 May 09 21:30 weekly.0
server:Home/.snapshot(70)cd hourly.0/CS174 <- Go to the CS174 directory
server:/w/ugrad.01/.snapshot/hourly.0/cs/bob/risc/CS174(71)ls -l
total 0
-rw-------   1 bob      csugrad        0 May 07 11:38 final_proj
-rw-------   1 bob      csugrad        0 May 07 11:38 final_proj.cc <- Here it is
-rw-------   1 bob      csugrad        0 May 07 11:38 final_proj.dll
-rw-------   1 bob      csugrad        0 May 07 11:38 final_proj.doc
-rw-------   1 bob      csugrad        0 May 07 11:38 final_proj.o
server:/w/ugrad.01/.snapshot/hourly.0/cs/bob/risc/CS174(72)cp final_proj.cc ~/CS174
Copy the file from the snapshot to your directory -^
server:/w/ugrad.01/.snapshot/hourly.0/cs/bob/risc/CS174(73)cd ~/CS174
server:Home/CS174(74)ls -l
total 0
-rw-------   1 bob      csugrad        0 May 10 09:55 final_proj
-rw-------   1 bob      csugrad        0 May 10 09:55 final_proj.cc <- Now it's back
-rw-------   1 bob      csugrad        0 May 10 09:55 final_proj.dll
-rw-------   1 bob      csugrad        0 May 10 09:55 final_proj.doc
-rw-------   1 bob      csugrad        0 May 10 09:55 final_proj.o