Re: Restoring sticky bits after accidentally moving /usr directory

[David <bouncingcats@gmail.com>]

On Wed, 19 May 2021 at 08:26, Steve Dondley <s@dondley.com> wrote:

> I goofed up and accidentally moved my /usr directory while trying to
> make room on a full drive. I was able to recover, but I'm finding that
> services are not working because the sticky bits for many files
> /usr/bin/* were lost. For example, I can't send email with exim because
> of this error:
>
> Failed to create spool file /var/spool/exim4//input//1lj87g-0002tS-5J-D:
> Permission denied
>
> Is there an easy way to ensure I set all the permissions back to where
> they were before I move /usr?

This is what I would do.

Restore my backup somewhere so that I have a tree with the
correct filesystem attributes.

Make a temporary copy of the broken /usr tree to somewhere else,
in case something goes wrong.

Then run:
  sudo cp --attributes-only --archive /correct/* /broken

I tested this just now on a toy example, it seems to work.
I suggest to test it yourself before using it, to verify that it does
what you need.