$ Linux One Liners
Back to commands

Hosting Operations

Read-only, can be slow

List Restore Points Before a Drill

You need a quick, timestamped list of available backup restore points before choosing one to test.

Command

cd restore-dr && find backups -maxdepth 2 -type f -name MANIFEST.txt -printf '%TY-%Tm-%Td %TH:%TM %h\n' | sort -r

Before you run this

System impact: Read-only. Can create load on large logs, directories, filesystems, or process tables.

When not to use it: Do not treat this as proof the archive contents are valid; it only proves manifests exist.

Expected output

Dated backup directories sorted newest first.

System impact

Read-only, can be slow. Nothing changes. The command reads manifest paths and prints their backup directories.

Scope this to the smallest useful path or service on busy systems.

Recovery / rollback: no state is changed.

When to use it

Use at the start of a restore drill or incident to inventory candidate recovery points.

When not to use it

Do not treat this as proof the archive contents are valid; it only proves manifests exist.

Explanation-only example

Illustrated output, not a live lab run

This example is intentionally illustrative. It shows the command shape without killing real processes or changing your machine.

demo@lab:~$

$ cd restore-dr && find backups -maxdepth 2 -type f -name MANIFEST.txt -print | sort

backups/2026-06-24/MANIFEST.txt
backups/2026-06-25/MANIFEST.txt

$ cd restore-dr && find backups -maxdepth 2 -type f -name MANIFEST.txt -printf '%TY-%Tm-%Td %TH:%TM %h\n' | sort -r

2026-06-25 12:00 backups/2026-06-25
2026-06-25 12:00 backups/2026-06-24
View commands shown

These are the commands shown in the sanitized transcript.

Commands shown

  1. cd restore-dr && find backups -maxdepth 2 -type f -name MANIFEST.txt -print | sort
  2. cd restore-dr && find backups -maxdepth 2 -type f -name MANIFEST.txt -printf '%TY-%Tm-%Td %TH:%TM %h\n' | sort -r

next steps

Related commands

Hosting Operations Can be slow

Find the Newest Build Logs First

The failing file is usually one of the newest artifacts.

find artifacts logs -type f \( -name '*.log' -o -name '*.txt' \) -printf '%TY-%Tm-%Td %TH:%TM %p\n' | sort -r | head
Hosting Operations Can be slow

Show Release Directory Ages

See your newest release directories without opening a dashboard.

find releases/ -mindepth 1 -maxdepth 1 -type d -printf '%T@ %TY-%Tm-%Td %TH:%TM %p\n' | sort -nr | head -10 | cut -d' ' -f2-
Hosting Operations Can be slow

List Newest Source Files Before Backup

Before trusting a backup, know which files changed most recently.

find source -type f -printf '%TY-%Tm-%Td %TH:%TM %p\n' | sort
Hosting Operations Can be slow

List Newest Build Artifacts

Confirm what your pipeline actually produced before you deploy it.

find artifacts/ -type f -printf '%TY-%Tm-%Td %TH:%TM %10s %p\n' | sort | tail -20
Hosting Operations Can be slow

Exclude the Current Release from Cleanup

Release cleanup should prove what current points to before listing old directories.

current=$(readlink -f /lab/disk-inode-cleanup/home/deploy/current); find /lab/disk-inode-cleanup/home/deploy/releases -mindepth 1 -maxdepth 1 -type d ! -samefile "$current" -printf '%TY-%Tm-%Td %p\n' | sort
Study mapping

Use this as independent command practice: read the notes, predict the output, then compare it with the example before using a real shell.

  • lpic1:103-gnu-unix-commands
  • lpic1:104-filesystems-permissions-fhs
  • lfcs:essential-commands
  • lfcs:operations-deployment
  • lfcs:services-logs
  • lfcs:storage
  • linuxplus:automation-scripting
  • linuxplus:provisional
  • linuxplus:system-management
  • risk:read-only

Useful for

  • LPIC-1 style command-line practice
  • LFCS style performance tasks
  • Linux+ style troubleshooting review

Independent study support only. No affiliation, endorsement, exam dumps, or real exam questions.