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I did this:

mv couchpotato_11-08-2016_09-35.tar.gz ~/AtoMiC-ToolKit/backup
mv transmission-daemon_11-08-2016_09-36.tar.gz ~/AtoMiC-ToolKit/backup
mv sickrage_11-08-2016_09-35.tar.gz ~/AtoMiC-ToolKit/backup

But backup was no directory or file, and now the files are gone.

How do I find or restore these files?

Peter Mortensen
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Raymond Eirik Andersen Kibsgaa
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    The answers below are unfortunately correct in their assertions that you have overwritten the first two files with the third, when you mistakenly mv'd them to become the file named backup. It may be possible to get the files back with a recovery utility like testdisk. To avoid this in the future, it can be useful to input the trailing / when you want to move something into a directory, mv will issue a warning that the directory doesn't exist. – Arronical Nov 08 '16 at 12:34
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    You might want to alias mv='mv -i', and get into the habit of using trailing slashes in mv foo /bar/ (as opposed to mv foo /bar). – marcelm Nov 08 '16 at 18:32

3 Answers3

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Your files are gone and only your last file 'sickrage_11-08-2016_09-35.tar.gz ' is still there and renamed to 'backup' in '~/AtoMiC-ToolKit/'

To restoring it back just run (assuming you didn't change your working directory yet)

mv ~/AtoMiC-ToolKit/backup $PWD/sickrage_11-08-2016_09-35.tar.gz
αғsнιη
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2

If backup didn't exist as a directory, a file will be created with that name. Then your second and third mv command would overwrite the previous. You won't be able to retreive the previous files.

CodeWarrior
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2

When no destination folder exists, mv doesn't move the file rather renames it. Had you used it just once you could have recovered the file, but you used it thrice so first and second file got overwritten by the third file

So basically sickrage_11-08-2016_09-35.tar.gz is now ~/AtoMiC-ToolKit/backup. If it doesnt show up, turn the "Show Hidden Files" option on to see it.

Ashvin Sharma
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