Recovering from a chown -R / I've made today the greatest error on my server using root user: chown -R 33:33 / instead of `chown -R 33:33 .` within some webroot folder. Well, this brought `ssh` down. I made it this far to get it working again, so far `apache`, `mysql` and `php` are still working, but I don't know if I ever restart them, or if the server will fail upon restarting. Is there any "index" or package which will enable reverting these permission to the right / previous ones? Here is the console output which help me realize and abort that operation: ![chown errors]( Can I do anything to recover?

No, no chance. You have to reinstall the system.

There are lists in the internet, how to re-`chown` (or `chmod`) the filesystem, but you can never cover **all files**. Those are attempt to solve this without reinstalling. But, I'm sorry for the bad news; The only correct solution is reinstalling, even if you aborted the command after a while.

The system may not even boot anymore. Most of the services probably don't start anymore.

* * *

I think, every system administrator had to learn that the hard way. That's why I have a some rules for myself:

1. Always when doing a command with `-R`, re-read it at least 3 times, before pressing `Enter`. Then:
2. Read it again.
3. Sure?
4. Press `Enter` (and keep the fingers crossed).