sheavner / lde

The Linux Disk Editor

This is lde, the Linux disk editor, for Minix/Linux partitions. It supports what were once the three most popular file systems under Linux: ext2fs, minix, and xiafs (there is also a "nofs" system under which lde will function as a binary editor). There is also minimal support for msdos/fat filesytems and very minimal support for ISO9660 cdrom based filesystems. lde allows you to view and edit disk blocks as hex and/or ASCII, view/navigate directory entries, and view and edit formatted inodes. Most of the functions can be accessed using the program's curses interface or from the command line so that you can automate things with your own scripts.

lde can also be used to recover files which may have been accidentally erased or just to poke around the file system to see what it's made of. I've included a short introduction to the Minix file system (just enough to get the ideas of blocks and inodes across to most people) and some docs on the ext2fs (mostly just data out of <linux/ext2_fs.h> formatted as tables to make wading through the disk blocks a little bit easier). If you aren't familiar with inode based file systems, you should have a look at those files before proceeding to the doc/UNERASE file, which details what I think you might try to recover a file.

There is no tutorial, but there is a detailed man page. Look at docs/lde.man (or docs/lde.man.text) for information on running lde from the command line and using its ncurses interface. For more information on compiling, installing, or running lde for the first time, see INSTALL and INSTALL.LDE.

This project started as a major hack to fsck. In the first few months of the project, most of the fsck code evaporated as I added support for the xiafs and ext2fs file systems, but there is still some code which should be credited to Linus Torvalds. Also, some of the code in ext2fs.c has worked its way out of Remy Card's e2fsprogs.

Development has been moved to github. The project homepage is https://sheavner.github.io/lde or check the project page at https://github.com/sheavner/lde. They both contain links back to the other. Older versions of the project can be found at http://lde.sourceforge.net

If you find lde useful, send me email and a postcard -- email for instant gratification and a postcard, so I'll have some tangible evidence of a userbase. I won't turn away cash or gifts if you feel any urges to bestow them upon me.