Yeah... i know.

I was untaring some app to my /root/stuff directory and it created an /etc dir in there. I couldn't get the thing installed so i wanted to delete that /etc directory. I was in my /root/stuff directory and, like a total idiot, i typed "rm -rf /etc/" instead of "rm -rf /root/stuff/etc".

Now etc is gone obviously.

Is there something i can do to restore it or and i done for and must install slack again from scratch?

If you have access to a slackware mirror or the CDs/DVD you could always just grep through /var/log/packages/* for files that belongs to /etc and do some hard work with explodepkg to get your hands on the default files for /etc, and thus avoiding a complete reinstall.

And once you've got it fixed you should tell crond to take a daily backup of /etc ;-)

I'm searching for an ext3 data recovery software. Recovered a 200gb NTFS partition witch broke today using a ntfs recovery tool so it shouldn't be that hard to recover the /etc deleted dir...

As e5150 stated, definitely start making a regular backup of /etc (and probably /home and /var, and perhaps others, depending on the usage pattern of the box).

That being said, yeah, you're probably hosed. Among other things, the /etc directory contains the startup scripts, the password database, and various other things that are required for proper system function. You *might* be able to recover the original files, but unless it's information that you simply cannot recreate given a bit of time in a new installation, it's probably not worth the time/effort required. e5150's suggestion to explode the packages containing /etc content is a decent one, though, as most of the files aren't modified much from the default in typical usage (that of course depends on how "typical" is defined and what *your* specific usage is). If you elect to go that route, you'll at a minimum have to recreate any user accounts and custom groups, as well as reset the password for root.

If it helps any (and it probably won't) :-) you're not alone on this journey - I've walked that road not once, but twice, in my days on linux...

Instead of exploding the package, you can just run a "upgradepkg --reinstall" with the "etc" package, I'm not sure upgradepkg needs /etc at all.
Then, as explained above, you will need to recreate users, groups, password, but that's less work than a full reinstall.
If you already shut down your system, you still can boot on the Slack CD, copy the "etc" package on your disk, then chroot and run the "upgradepkg" command.

Meh, i'm fux0red

Should've just set the damn partition to ext2 in the first place... would've recovered everything like a charm.

Anyway, slack was only installed a few hours ago. All i had on it was ntfs-3g, conky and some other smaller stuff.

Any of these linked to /etc ?

I'll copy the /etc dir from the slack dvd and see what happens...

EDIT: where can i find the etc package on the slack dvd?

I think reinstalling the "etc" package" is better than copying the /etc from the CD. There are probably a lot of things missing in the Cd's /etc.
In any case, I think there are many other packages you'll need to reinstall, as some set their own /etc conf files.

I can't copy it anyway. I can't mount the slack partition used by booting the DVD because i can't edit /etc/fstab to set it's mount point and stuff like that.

How would i go about reinstalling /etc ?

Would it just be better to reinstall the whole damn thing (slack 12) all together and forget about it?

Reinstalled everything and running normal again. Next is a "rm -rf *" to make it perfect

For the record, you don't need fstab to mount a partition : just run "mount -t <fs_type> <device> <mount point>" works.
Anyway, reinstalling everything is often faster when you don't have too personnalized a system.

Oops, answered wrong question.