EXTUNDELETE(1) EXTUNDELETE(1) NAME extundelete - utility to undelete files from an ext3 or ext4 partition. SYNOPSIS extundelete [options] device-file... DESCRIPTION extundelete is a utility that can recover deleted files from an ext3 or ext4 partition extundelete uses the information stored in the partition's journal to attempt to recover a file that has been deleted from the partition. There is no guarantee that any particular file will be able to be undeleted, so always try to have a good backup system in place, or at least put one in place after recovering your files! OPTIONS --version Prints the version number of extundelete. --help Print a brief usage summary for extundelete. Partition name Name of the partition that has deleted files, such as /dev/sda3. Could also be the file name of a copy of the partition, such as that made with dd. --superblock Prints information about the filesystem from the superblock. --journal --superblock Prints information about the journal from the journal's superblock. --inode # Prints the information from the inode number of the filesystem given, such as "--inode 2". --block # Prints the contents of the block, called as "--block 9652". --restore-file path/to/deleted/file Attempts to restore the file which was deleted at the given filename, called as "--restore-file dirname/filename". --restore-inode # Used to restore inodes by number, called as "--restore-inode 2569". Also accepts a list of inodes separated by only commas, such as "--restore-inode 2569,5692,6925". --restore-files filename Restores a list of files. First, construct a list of files in the same style as would be used in the --restore-file option, and save it to the file "filename". Then, this option may be used to attempt to restore those files with a single call to extundelete. This form also reduces redundancy from multiple calls parsing the journal multiple times. --output-dir path/to/dump/recovered/files Restores files in the output dir 'path'. By default the restored files are created under current directory 'RECOVERED_FILES' --restore-all Restores all files possible to undelete to their names before deletion, when possible. Other files are restored to a filename like "file.NNNN". --restore-directory path/of/directory Restores all files possible to link to specified directory to their names before deletion, when possible. -j journal_dev Specifies the device that is the external journal of the file system. -b block_number Specifies the block number of the backup superblock to be used when opening the file system. -B block_size Specifies the block size of the partition to be used when opening the file system. --before date Only restore files deleted before the date specified, which should be in the form of the number of seconds since the UNIX epoch. Use a shell command like $ date -d "Aug 1 9:02" +%s to convert a human-readable date to the proper format. The conversion from the number of seconds to a readable format may be found by using either of the following: $ date -d@1234567890 $ perl -le "print scalar localtime 1234567890" --after date Only restore files deleted after the date specified, which should be in the form of the number of seconds since the UNIX epoch. See the notes for the --before option for more information. AUTHOR extundelete was written by Nic Case Copyright (C) 2009, 2010 This manual page was written by Elías Alejandro Año Mendoza , for the Debian project (and may be used by others). September 29, 2010 EXTUNDELETE(1)