RecoverPy – Interactively Find And Recover Deleted Or Overwritten Files From Your Terminal

You can already find plenty of solutions to recover deleted files, but it can be a hassle to recover overwritten files. RecoverPy searches through every block of your partition to find your request.

Demo

Installation

RecoverPy is currently only available on Linux systems.

Dependancies

Mandatory: To list and search through your partitions, recoverpy uses grep, dd, and lsblk commands.

Optional: To display real time grep progress, you can install progress.

To install all dependencies:

• Debian-like: apt install grep coreutils util-linux progress
• Arch: pacman -S grep coreutils util-linux progress
• Fedora: dnf install grep coreutils util-linux progress

Installation from pip

python3 -m pip install recoverpy

Usage

python3 -m recoverpy

You must have root access to use recoverpy.

If you are not logged as root use sudo recoverpy or log in with su - before execution.

Note that searching a string in a whole partition may take a while. (see euphemism)

Default save path is /tmp/, click on Settings to edit configuration.

Tips

• Always do backups! Yes, maybe too late…
• Unmount your partition before you do anything! Although you can search with your partition still mounted, it is highly recommended to unmount your partition to avoid any alteration to your file.

Regarding the searched string:

• Be concise, find something that could be unique to your file.
• Stay simple, your string is escaped but exotic characters may affect your results.
• Try to remember the last edit you have made to your file.

When you found your file:

• Use the option to explore neighboring blocks to make sure you do not miss some part of your file.

Contributing

Thank you for considering contributing to RecoverPy. Any request, bug report or PR are welcome. Please read the contributing guide.