Installation of e2undel

Note: If you just want to recover a recently deleted file, the deleted file recovery howto might be just what you're looking for.

 Requirements 

• Linux with kernel 2.2 or 2.4 (2.0 should work, but is not tested)
• ext2 filesystem (no ext3, ReiserFS, XFS, JFS; no RAID)
• only tested on Intel architecture, other platforms may work
• glibc 2.2 ist tested, other versions should work
• the e2fsprogs packet (might be called ext2fs or something similar on your distribution); versions from 1.19 to 1.25 are tested, other (not too old) versions should work
• the e2fsprogs-devel packet (Ted Ts'o's original e2fsprogs packet conatins everything necessary)

 Building and installing e2undel 

• compile with make e2undel-file (or make e2undel, see usage notes)
• install by copying the resulting e2undel binary to any directory within your $PATH (e.g., /usr/local/bin)

 Building and installing the undel library 

• compile with make libundel
• copy the resulting libundel.so.1.0 to /usr/local/lib
• create appropriate links in /usr/local/lib/:
  • ln -s libundel.so.1.0 libundel.so.1
  • ln -s libundel.so.1 libundel.so
• start ldconfig
• create libundel's log file with correct access rights:
  • mkdir /var/e2undel
  • chmod 711 /var/e2undel
  • touch /var/e2undel/e2undel
  • chmod 622 /var/e2undel/e2undel
  If "regular" users will be allowed to recover deleted files, they also need read access to /var/e2undel/e2undel; so use chmod 666 /var/e2undel/e2undel
• activate libundel with export LD_PRELOAD=/usr/local/lib/libundel.so. Add this line to /etc/profile.

 Building and installing the compactlog tool 

• compile with make compactlog
• install by copying the resulting compactlog binary to any directory within your $PATH (e.g., /usr/local/bin)