#16 Working with the Removed File Archive

Now that a directory of deleted files and directories is hidden within the user's account home, a script to let the user pick and choose between these deleted files would clearly be useful. However, it's quite a task to address all the possible situations, ranging from no matches to one match to more than one match. In the case of more than one match, for example, do you automatically pick the newest file to undelete? Indicate how many matches there are and quit? Present data on the different versions and let the user pick? Let's see what we can do. . . .

The Code

#!/bin/sh

# unrm - Searches the deleted files archive for the specified file or directory.
#   If there is more than one matching result, shows a list of the results,
#   ordered by timestamp, and lets the user specify which one to restore.

mydir="$HOME/.deleted-files"
realrm="/bin/rm"
move="/bin/mv"

dest=$(pwd)

if [ ! -d $mydir ] ; then
  echo "$0: No deleted files directory: nothing to unrm" >&2 ; exit 1
fi

cd $mydir

if [ $# -eq 0 ] ; then  # no args, just show listing
  echo "Contents of your deleted files archive (sorted by date):"
  ls -FC | sed -e 's/\([[:digit:]][[:digit:]]\.\)\{5\}//g' \
    -e 's/^/  /'
  exit 0
fi

# Otherwise we must have a user-specified pattern to work with. Let's see if the
# pattern matches more than one file or directory in the archive.

matches="$(ls *"$1" 2> /dev/null | wc -l)"

if [ $matches -eq 0 ] ; then
  echo "No match for \"$1\" in the deleted file archive." >&2
  exit 1
fi

if [ $matches -gt 1 ] ; then
  echo "More than one file or directory match in the archive:"
  index=1
  for name in $(ls -td *"$1")
  do
    datetime="$(echo $name | cut -c1−14| \
       awk -F. '{ print $5"/"$4" at "$3":"$2":"$1 }')"
    if [ -d $name ] ; then
      size="$(ls $name | wc -l | sed 's/[^[:digit:]]//g')"
      echo " $index)   $1  (contents = ${size} items, deleted = $datetime)"
    else
      size="$(ls -sdk1 $name | awk '{print $1}')"
      echo " $index)   $1  (size = ${size}Kb, deleted = $datetime)"
    fi
    index=$(( $index + 1))
  done
  echo ""
  echo -n "Which version of $1 do you want to restore ('0' to quit)? [1] : "
  read desired

  if [ ${desired:=1} -ge $index ] ; then
    echo "$0: Restore canceled by user: index value too big." >&2
    exit 1
  fi

  if [ $desired -lt 1 ] ; then
    echo "$0: restore canceled by user." >&2 ; exit 1
  fi

  restore="$(ls -td1 *"$1" | sed -n "${desired}p")"

  if [ -e "$dest/$1" ] ; then
    echo "\"$1\" already exists in this directory. Cannot overwrite." >&2
    exit 1
  fi

  echo -n "Restoring file \"$1\" ..."
  $move "$restore" "$dest/$1"
  echo "done."

  echo -n "Delete the additional copies of this file? [y] "
  read answer

  if [ ${answer:=y} = "y" ] ; then
    $realrm -rf *"$1"
    echo "deleted."
  else
    echo "additional copies retained."
  fi
else
  if [ -e "$dest/$1" ] ; then
    echo "\"$1\" already exists in this directory. Cannot overwrite." >&2
    exit 1
  fi

  restore="$(ls -d *"$1")"

  echo -n "Restoring file \"$1\" ... "
  $move "$restore" "$dest/$1"
  echo "done."
fi

exit 0