undo apt-get autoremove or restore data (command line)

[saltyoceanbreathe]

Hey,

I searched other posts but can't find a solution. Is there a possibility to undo the apt-get autoremove command or at least to restore data that was removed through the command?

I ran apt-get autoremove firefox, but then also my thunderbird profile with all saved emails was deleted..

+ I need a solution to fix this from command line, (since X-Window seems broken somehow..logs me out every timeafter a few seconds show in "Checking battery state.. [OK]" but that's a different issue)

My distribution is LL 10.04 if that's important

Thanks

[claydoh]

Re: undo apt-get autoremove or restore data (command line)

autoremove does not remove any local configuration files such as emails and other account settings - these are stored in your home directory in a hidden folder .mozilla. Uninstalling packages never deletes local user config files/directories. You can reinstall firefox by running

sudo apt-get install firefox

But that will not restore any missing or deleted user's files.

As you seem to be having different issues with different severities - you might want to start a new topic with your X problem.

Why did you run the autoremove command in the first place, it is meant to uninstall packages that are no longer used by other packages (as needed dependencies) and not used to remove individual packages.

sudo apt-get remove <packagename>

is what you need to use for this. And. it still would not delete your local data
Even using the --purge switch would not delete those.

[saltyoceanbreathe]

Re: undo apt-get autoremove or restore data (command line)

thanks for the answer so far.
It's helping me in understanding linux in general, but my specific problem is restoring the data of the thunderbird profile, which somehow is not there anymore after running 'apt-get autoremove firefox'

Don't get me wrong, i think you (claydoh) know what you're saying when you're saying that autoremove never delets user config files/directories.
But the profile is gone (after running the command) now and i really need to restore it

2 things that might be important:
1) The deleted Thunderbird Profile was not located in the home directory but on a separate partition (could it be different then and be deleted by autoremve?)
2) The firefox and thunderbird profiles were used by both these application in windows vista and kubuntu simultaneously (The thunderbird profile is gone in vista too, of course)

So what I need is a possibility to restore this profile data (still from command line)
could it be in the recycle bin after running the autoremove command?

I appreciate every answer or thaught on the issue

[claydoh]

Re: undo apt-get autoremove or restore data (command line)

It is definitely not something uninstalling a package is supposed to do - apt has no way of knowing where these files are, actually. I could not find an instance on the 'net that is similar to what has happened to you (yet) and I cannot reproduce it myself, so can't see what to do to fix it.

Unfortunately, if the physical files are physically gone, there is no real way to recover them, no matter how they were lost.

If the files still exist, then that is something we can work with.

[saltyoceanbreathe]

Re: undo apt-get autoremove or restore data (command line)

hm, it seems like the files are physically gone (if physically gone means that they do not appear in the folder anymore)
but i don't intend to give up so fast.

what's with the opportunity that they might be in the recycle bin of this partition, is this even a possibility?
is there a command to list the files in the recycle bin, i can't find it on the net.

(beside the point of this topic: as for my other issues not getting into graphical mode i'm willing to reset the system but first i want to try to restore those files)

[Ole Juul]

Re: undo apt-get autoremove or restore data (command line)

Where were the files before? I don't use Thunderbird but supposedly the files should be in the ~/.thunderbird/***default directory. Is that where you are looking?

[claydoh]

Re: undo apt-get autoremove or restore data (command line)

hm, it seems like the files are physically gone (if physically gone means that they do not appear in the folder anymore)
but i don't intend to give up so fast.

what's with the opportunity that they might be in the recycle bin of this partition, is this even a possibility?

Very likely not.

is there a command to list the files in the recycle bin, i can't find it on the net.

the ls command will work:

ls -a /path/to/folder

ie
ls -a /home/<username>/.local/share/Trash/files

If you can install the program 'mc' you will get a graphical commandline file manager - no point-and-click, but is pretty easy to use.

Another graphical option is to boot to a livecd and use that to poke around

(beside the point of this topic: as for my other issues not getting into graphical mode i'm willing to reset the system but first i want to try to restore those files)