TaskWarrior: Lost 'pending.data' due to full drive!; TW overwrote w/0-b file - any way to recover using intact 'undo.data' or otherwise?

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So I didn't realize my system drive had filled up... and TaskWarrior overwrote my 'pending.data' with a 0-byte copy. d-: I had worked SO hard to get all my tasks imported from various other notes (many of which I deleted along the way), and hadn't yet prepared for the possibility of data loss. Should've set it up to use my Dropbox... Grr... why doesn't TaskWarrior make ANY backup buy default? That data is so important, and yet so small and trivial to backup. ]-:<

Anyway, my 'undo.data' is totally intact and seems to contain all the information theoretically needed to reconstruct 'pending.data'. Has anyone ever written a script to do this, or does somebody have regex's I could use for conversion? Unfortunately right now I have no sample 'pending.data' to look at... d-:

OR: does anybody know of a simple Linux utility I can use to recover previous file versions? It's possible no data was overwritten, since the replacement is empty.

THANKS!

Casey Jones

Posted 2011-08-05T20:39:24.183

Reputation: 106

Things rolling already at the TaskWarrior forum: http://taskwarrior.org/boards/1/topics/1743

I've already got two good proposed solutions for recovery through 'undo.data', but I'd still be very interested in any raw data-recovery solutions.

– Casey Jones – 2011-08-05T22:43:41.580

To quote myself in the aforementioned thread at the TaskWarrior forum:

Linux file recovery tools all seem to be inordinately complex, at least compared to ones I used in my Windows days, such as 'Restoration' and Piriform's 'Recuva'. I'm somewhat familiar with how to use PhotoRec, but it operates on particular file extensions by searching for headers and offsets. Since I don't have a sample 'pending.data', it'd be helpful if somebody could either send me one or generate a PhotoRec extension: http://www.cgsecurity.org/wiki/Add_your_own_extension_to_PhotoRec

– Casey Jones – 2011-08-05T22:46:07.817

Answers

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task rc.merge.autopush=no merge /path/to/intact/undo.data

Casey Jones

Posted 2011-08-05T20:39:24.183

Reputation: 106

That worked. [-: – Casey Jones – 2011-08-06T21:44:28.993