How to recover after "rm -rf ../MyUser/Library"

[VirtualRoland]

Hi community- really hoping you guys can give me a good hint into the right direction.

Background: I was on my way of completely removing all bits and pieces from MS Lync from my computer as it was constantly crashing and I wanted to cleanly reinstall.
While I was removing some folders within Library I was too fast with my fingers and forgot to hit TAB to show folders below Library.

Problem: I executed "rm -rf ../MyUser/Library". I aborted shortly after with CTRL+C, but much stuff was already gone.
Now, many applications lost their settings/licenses/configurations completely.
Extra Info: I didn't do much many disc operations so far besides downloading a recovery software to run a scan. Problem here is, that these programs are mainly targeting video, audio, photo, document files which I don't care about right now. Additionally, these programs

Ask: Do you suggest to bring back my data, and if yes, how? Or would you recommend to just go on and see how many of my max 25 3rd party apps still work and how to make them work again?
Recovery would probably only helpful if it could bring back the files with their original attributes like name, folder, permissions, etc.

Thanks for your comments and help.

 

[keysofanxiety]

Background: I was on my way of completely removing all bits and pieces from MS Lync from my computer as it was constantly crashing and I wanted to cleanly reinstall.

Jeez, please just use AppCleaner in future. No need to go OTT and sudo-delete it through the Terminal. That's just asking for trouble.

If you're talking about recovering apps – well, you could do that through Migration Assistant if you've already got a Time Machine backup. Otherwise you'll need to reinstall the applications the old fashioned way.

If you're talking about reinstalling core OS files/applications, you can do that by holding CMD+R on startup and selecting 'reinstall OS X'. This will not affect any applications/user data, but will just reinstall the bits that come with the OS.

 

[maflynn]

If you can't be sure of what was deleted? I'd look to do a restore from your backup, othewise you need to reinstall as mentioned. You're choices are limited.

I think this is why Apple hides the Library folder - in the future if you really need to remove files in the ~/Library folder, hit cmd-G and type ~/Library You can then Finder and then only delete exactly what should be deleted.

Good luck

 

[Fishrrman]

MacConfucious say:
"Not so good to be using terminal when you don't plan ahead for what it can do to you!"

Your best bet now is to do a restore from your backups.