Retrieve Deleted Mac 10.4.8 /usr/bin Directory

[0rthodontist]

Through an incrediby boneheaded mistake, I have deleted my /usr/bin directory on my MacBook. Fortunately it only had a small number of programs that weren't there by default. Also, most of the GUI seems to run just fine without the bin directory, and the computer boots. But I do not know how to recover the directory. My best guess at this point is to solicit people I know who use macs to give me their /usr/bin directories. Worst case, I could reinstall the whole OS. But before I try that, is there any other way that I can get this directory?

 

[jtbell]

If you have enough disk space, or a spare disk, you can create a new partition and install a fresh copy of the OS onto it, then try to copy /usr/bin from it. But watch out for links! An ls -l on mine shows a bunch of symlinks which you'd probably have to recreate by hand. And then you'd have to figure out if there are any hard links, and what they link to, and recreate those, too.

 

[mgiddy911]

I think your best bet may be to try and ether partition your drive, or find an external drive and do a fresh system install, and see if you can salvage that /usr/bin you can maybe then se a program such as OnyX to rebuild the system links. I'd be happy to assist you in anyway, the ls command form my /usr bin yields a list of files much too long to post here, otherwise i'd show you what mine contains. But if you need me to try and copy mine, i'd be happy to help, I have a macbook with OS X.4.8

 

[0rthodontist]

Well, thanks for the offer/information, but I ended up just reinstalling the operating system. It was a nuisance but it's back to normal.

 

[Anttech]

As they say.. don't use the superuser account

You didnt sudo delete that dir did you?