View source for HowTos:Restore files from snapshots on Linux from home directory on Math file server

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== Restore File From Snapshots on Linux ==
These instructions describe how to restore a deleted or older copy of a file from your home directory on a Linux machine.  

First, change directories to where the file was/is located - open a terminal (either on a linux desktop or ssh to one of login servers) and cd to that directory.  For example, if the deleted file was ''thesis/1st_draft/chapter1.tex'' then make sure you are in the directory ''thesis/1st_draft'':

''cd thesis/1st_draft''

Proceed by changing into .snapshot directory.  This is a hidden subdirectory that exists in every directory (in your home dir) and that contains all snapshots:

''cd .snapshot''

In there you will find directories like: nightly.0, nightly.1, ..., nightly.2, hourly.0, hourly.1, ..., hourly.10 (just type ''ls'' to see them).  Change to the directory that still contains your file and copy it back to where it was.  E.g.
{|cellspacing="4"
|''cd nightly.0''
|-
|''cp chapter1.tex ../..'' || or || ''cp chapter1.tex ~/thesis/1st_draft''
|}
An even better way to restore files is to look at all copies of our missing file in all of the snapshots.  In our example you could do ''ls -l */chapter1.tex'' (after changing the directory to .snapshot) which will result in an output that resembles:
{|cellspacing="4"
|''-rw-------  1 mathuser grad 20323 Jul  5 16:44 hourly.0/chapter1.tex''
|-
|''-rw-------  1 mathuser grad 19800 Jul  5 15:32 hourly.1/chapter1.tex''
|-
|''-rw-------  1 mathuser grad 19543 Jul  5 13:20 hourly.2/chapter1.tex''
|-
|''-rw-------  1 mathuser grad 18702 Jul  5 09:16 hourly.3/chapter1.tex''
|-
|''-rw-------  1 mathuser grad 18702 Jul  5 09:16 hourly.4/chapter1.tex''
|}
Then you can pick the precise versio of the file you want to restore.  This is particularly useful if you need to retrieve an older copy of the file, e.g. in case you made changes that you want to revert or if you have overwritten it by mistake.