{"id":48406,"date":"2025-03-15T13:54:11","date_gmt":"2025-03-15T13:54:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ubuntuhandbook.org\/?p=48406"},"modified":"2025-03-16T01:24:15","modified_gmt":"2025-03-16T01:24:15","slug":"restore-deleted-files-under-etc","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ubuntuhandbook.org\/index.php\/2025\/03\/restore-deleted-files-under-etc\/","title":{"rendered":"How to Restore Deleted Files Under \/etc Directory in Ubuntu"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Messed up or mistakenly deleted configuration files under \/etc<\/code> directory, but no backup? Here’s how to restore the files just like they were originally installed.<\/p>\n

In Linux, the \/etc<\/code> directory is the location for storing system-wide configuration files. When installing a software package, it may create and\/or read software specific config files under \/etc<\/code> directory for user custom configurations.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

To prevent overriding user custom configurations, re-install software packages by default will NOT replace the files under \/etc<\/code> directory, even when you deleted the files under that directory. Though, some packages will ask if keep or replace the old configurations during installation.<\/p>\n

If you mistakenly deleted files under \/etc<\/code> or just want to restore files under that directory to original, then this tutorial may help.<\/p>\n

NOTE: NOT only for Ubuntu, this tutorial should works in all Debian based systems.<\/b><\/p>\n

Step 1: Find out which package includes the file\/files<\/h3>\n

In Linux, many applications are built into separated packages. When installing software package xxx<\/code>, it may also install xxx-data<\/code>, xxx-common<\/code>, or xxx-plugins<\/code> etc. as dependencies. The file you want to restore may be included in either one of the packages.<\/p>\n

Option 1: use dpkg command:<\/h4>\n

To find out which package includes that file, either open terminal (Ctrl+Alt+T<\/b>) or connect to Debian\/Ubuntu server. Then, try dpkg -S<\/code> command.<\/p>\n

For example, search which package includes \/etc\/ssh\/ssh_import_id<\/code>:<\/p>\n

dpkg -S \/etc\/ssh\/ssh_import_id<\/pre>\n
Or, you may search which package includes files under given folder (it MAY output multiple packages for single folder).<\/p>\n
dpkg -S \/etc\/ssh<\/pre>\n
If you don’t even remember the file path, then just type filename instead. Even for file-name, you may use asterisk (*) for the part that you don’t remember.<\/p>\n
dpkg -S ssh_imp*<\/pre>\n
The last command will search which package include the file with ssh_imp<\/code> at the beginning of its name.<\/p>\n
\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n
Tips: you may alternatively use apt-file search<\/code> command do the similar job, though it seems that it does not support asterisk in search text.<\/p>\n
Option 2: use ucfq command:<\/h4>\n
The dpkg -S<\/code> command sometimes does not work, because the packages you search may be handled by ucf<\/code>\uff08Update Configuration Files).<\/p>\n
In the case, you may use ucfq<\/code> instead. For example, search which package include \/etc\/ssh\/sshd_config<\/code>:<\/p>\n
ucfq \/etc\/ssh\/sshd_config<\/pre>\n
The command needs to input full-path to the file you want to search. If you don’t remember, try command below to instead (replace smb<\/code> according to what you want to search):<\/p>\n
grep smb \/var\/lib\/ucf\/registry<\/pre>\n
\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n
Step 2: Re-install package & specify to re-create non-exist files<\/h3>\n
After finding out the which package includes the file you want to restore, then, run the command below to re-install and re-generate the missing user configuration file:<\/p>\n
sudo UCF_FORCE_CONFFMISS=1 apt -o Dpkg::Options::=--force-confmiss install --reinstall openssh-server<\/pre>\n
In the command above, replace the package name openssh-server<\/code> accordingly.<\/p>\n
Here both UCF_FORCE_CONFFMISS=1<\/code> and -o Dpkg::Options::=--force-confmiss<\/code> tell to re-generate installation files if they are NOT exist. You may skip the former one, if the package is NOT handled by ucf<\/code>.<\/p>\n
In the output, you’ll see something look like “Recreating deleted config file … with new version, as asked”.<\/p>\n
\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n
If it’s a local .deb<\/code> package, and you want to use dpkg<\/code> command to install, then run the command below will do the similar things:<\/p>\n
sudo UCF_FORCE_CONFFMISS=1 dpkg -i --force-confmiss package-name.deb<\/pre>\n
According to ucf manpage<\/a>, there are also UCF_FORCE_CONFFNEW<\/code> and --force-confnew<\/code> dpkg options to tell to always overwrite the installed destination file, though don’t know why it does NOT work in my test.<\/p>\n
via: this thread<\/a>.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Messed up or mistakenly deleted configuration files under \/etc directory, but no backup? Here’s how to restore the files just like they were originally installed. In Linux, the \/etc directory is the location for storing system-wide configuration files. When installing a software package, it may create and\/or read software specific config files under \/etc directory […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":48407,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[2301],"class_list":["post-48406","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-howtos","tag-admin"],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ubuntuhandbook.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48406","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ubuntuhandbook.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ubuntuhandbook.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ubuntuhandbook.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ubuntuhandbook.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=48406"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/ubuntuhandbook.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48406\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ubuntuhandbook.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/48407"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ubuntuhandbook.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=48406"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ubuntuhandbook.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=48406"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ubuntuhandbook.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=48406"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}