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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

BACKUP_ROOT=/srv/backups/site && find "$BACKUP_ROOT" -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.

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=$(readlink -f /home/deploy/current); find /home/deploy/releases -mindepth 1 -maxdepth 1 -type d ! -samefile "$current" -printf '%TY-%Tm-%Td %p\n' 2>/dev/null | 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.

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