3. Linux Software Most Frequently Asked Questions.

The following sections answers some of the more freqently asked questions about software and usage with Linux.

3.1 How do I sync my computer time clock to 'x'?

The recommended way is to get the xntp package from http://www.eecis.udel.edu/~ntp/ or any of the big Linux archives.

3.2 How do I apply a patch?

cd to the directory with source code. and type "patch < patchfile" (or patch < /path/to/your/pathfile if it resides in different directory).

3.3 Where do I find the latest versions of common packages?

• The Sunsite Archive: ftp://metalab.unc.edu/pub/Linux
• Linux Archive Search: http://torgo.ml.org/las
• Linux Software Map: (seems a bit out of date now) http://www.boutell.com/lsm
• Linux Applications and Utilities Page: http://www.xnet.com/~blatura/linapps.shtml
• Walnut Creek - Official Home of Slackware Linux: ftp://ftp.cdrom.com/pub/linux/
• Fresh Meat - Searchable Live Archive: http://www.freshmeat.net

For more sites please see also the Appendix, section A.

3.4 Is it possible to undelete files somehow?

The quick answer would be : NO. There's a quick note in chattr(1) manual page saying that you could use -u flag. But if you would go down you will see:

BUGS AND LIMITATIONS
       As of ext2 fs 0.5a, the `c' and `u' attribute are not hon-
       oured by the kernel code.

Maybe it could be possible to undelete file using a disk editor?

You could give a try:

1. Remount the filesystem read-only (if the file is on the root filesystem, you need to reboot the system in single-user mode). The longer you leave it, the more likely it is that some of the data will get overwritten.

   If you know the inode number of the file, you can skip next two steps.

2. Find which blocks contain the data (if you can't figure this out, then you're probably out of luck).
3. Find out which inode refers to these blocks.
4. Use debugfs's dump command to save the inode's data to a file.