On 06 Aug 2003, Joerg Johannes wrote: > On Wednesday 06 August 2003 16:56, Anthony Campbell wrote: > > Never do this! > > > > I just ran cleanlinks on my root directory; really stupid thing to > > do! > > > > Lots of things were deleted which should not have been and I don't > > know how long it will take to get things back working; only just > > restored ppp. Possibly a new installation will be required? > > > > Hi Anthony > > As I understand the manpage, it should only remove empty dirs and > dangling symlinks. And it spits out a list of what it deletes. Do you > have this list saved to a file? So you should be able to see what was > deleted, and judge if it was a good or a bad idea. > > joerg > > -- > Gib GATES keine Chance! >
Yes, this is what it says and in fact I think I used it previously without problems. I ran it as root, starting at /. What happened was that it removed a number of empty directories in /var that were actually needed (mainly related to apt and tex) and also removed /usr/bin/X11 which is a symlink to /usr/X11R6/bin and is pointed to by /etc/X11/X, so that X would not start. The modem also would not work, I can't remember why (something to do with /dev/ttyS0). You're right; I should have saved a list to file but I didn't. However, I have another computer which has a similar though not identical file structure and by comparing the two I was able to restore things pretty much to what it was previously and as far as I can see everything is working again. I do think the man file for cleanlinks should include a warning. I certainly shan't use it again. AC -- [EMAIL PROTECTED] || http://www.acampbell.org.uk using Linux GNU/Debian || for book reviews, electronic Windows-free zone || books and skeptical articles -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]
