Deleted certbot-auto and other files in Certbot Instructions Ubuntu 20.04

The instructions to "Uninstalling certbot-auto"
(Uninstalling certbot-auto — Certbot 1.21.0 documentation) were very clear, however not only was certbot-auto removed but all the other files were removed, except the directories.

Now, there is a backup directory of /usr/local/bin. The backup directory has all the files and is about 3 months younger then the directory files in /usr/local/bin.

Question: What is the recommendation to proceed?

A. copy the files deleted in /usr/local/bin from backup directory to /usr/local/bin, thus replacing only the missing files

B. copy everything from backup directory into /usr/local bin, thus over writing everything in /usr/local/bin with backup directory

C. Another recommendation

Which "other files" exactly? And what command did you run precisely? If you exactly followed the instructions to the letter, no "other files" should be removed.

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I accidentally deleted the following files (the other files) in /usr/local/bin. Only the directories remain in /usr/local/bin. The instructions were very clear. The instructions were PERFECT. I made the mistake

(NOTE: the ls -l is from the backup directory. The files shown DELETED are those deleted in /usr/local/bin. Only the directories remain in /usr/local/bin)

drwxr-xr-x 5 grace grace 4096 Apr 14 2020 acme
drwxr-xr-x 5 grace grace 4096 Apr 14 2020 certbot
drwxr-xr-x 4 grace grace 4096 Apr 14 2020 certbot-apache
-rwxr-xr-x 1 grace grace 78252 May 4 2021 certbot-auto - DELETED
drwxr-xr-x 5 grace grace 4096 Apr 14 2020 certbot-compatibility-test
drwxr-xr-x 5 grace grace 4096 Apr 14 2020 certbot-nginx
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 4103 Jul 9 2020 cert.txt - DELETED
-rw-r--r-- 1 grace grace 276 Apr 14 2020 CHANGES.rst - DELETED
-rw-r--r-- 1 grace grace 1402 Apr 14 2020 CONTRIBUTING.md - DELETED
-rw-r--r-- 1 grace grace 267 Apr 14 2020 docker-compose.yml - DELETED
-rw-r--r-- 1 grace grace 2771 Apr 14 2020 Dockerfile - DELETED
-rw-r--r-- 1 grace grace 2868 Apr 14 2020 Dockerfile-dev - DELETED
drwxr-xr-x 5 grace grace 4096 Apr 14 2020 docs
drwxr-xr-x 3 grace grace 4096 Apr 14 2020 examples
-rwxr-xr-x 1 grace grace 62298 Apr 14 2020 letsencrypt-auto - DELETED
drwxr-xr-x 4 grace grace 4096 Apr 14 2020 letsencrypt-auto-source
drwxr-xr-x 4 grace grace 4096 Apr 14 2020 letshelp-certbot
-rw-r--r-- 1 grace grace 11456 Apr 14 2020 LICENSE.txt - DELETED
-rw-r--r-- 1 grace grace 813 Apr 14 2020 linter_plugin.py - DELETED
-rw-r--r-- 1 grace grace 205 Apr 14 2020 MANIFEST.in - DELETED
-rwxr-xr-x 1 grace grace 62 Apr 14 2020 pep8.travis.sh - DELETED
-rw-r--r-- 1 grace grace 8403 Apr 14 2020 README.rst - DELETED
-rw-r--r-- 1 grace grace 494 Apr 14 2020 readthedocs.org.requirements.txt - DELETED
drwxr-xr-x 2 grace grace 4096 Apr 14 2020 renewal_scripts
-rw-r--r-- 1 grace grace 139 Apr 14 2020 setup.cfg - DELETED
-rw-r--r-- 1 grace grace 4352 Apr 14 2020 setup.py - DELETED
drwxr-xr-x 4 grace grace 4096 Apr 14 2020 tests
drwxr-xr-x 2 grace grace 4096 Apr 14 2020 tools
-rwxr-xr-x 1 grace grace 1316 Apr 14 2020 tox.cover.sh - DELETED
-rw-r--r-- 1 grace grace 5594 Apr 14 2020 tox.ini - DELETED
-rw-r--r-- 1 grace grace 2038 Apr 14 2020 Vagrantfile - DELETED

Were those all the files present before you deleted them? To me, it looks like the contents of (a part of) the certbot Github repository. I don't recognise any non-certbot file, so it seems to be your lucky day!

All those files weren't useful to begin with at that location, so no harm done deleting them. Usually though other non-certbot files could be present at that location, but it seems you've never used that location for anything but certbot.

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Just to be clear.

The directory used to renew certs was /usr/local/bin. The command used within /usr/local/bin was ./certbot-auto renew. In /usr/local/bin I deleted certbot-auto and all other files except the directories. I am using the backup directory to show which files were deleted in /usr/local/bin. I ran certbot-auto from /usr/local/bin. I did not run certbot-auto from the backup directory.

So, how do I proceed with my lucky day when only the directories remain in /usr/local/bin?
Do I move on the step 3 of the instructions? Thanks

All relevant files should be in /etc/letsencrypt/.

What's your ultimate goal here? Install a more up to date version of certbot and continue from there?

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I tried to update my certificates using certbot-auto renew. The the certificates were not updated. The error message said something to the extent that the certbot I was using was not being used or supported and I need to update to the latest version/method by going to certbot.eff.org.

My ultimate goal is to up date the version of certbot and obtain my certificates.
Thanks Osiris

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In that case you should visit https://certbot.eff.org/ and follow the instructions for your webserver/operating system.

One of the steps of those instructions would be to remove the certbot-auto script. You've done that partly by removing the script from /usr/local/bin/. You just have to follow the rest of the guide for removing the certbot-auto script and then continue with the instructions from the site I've linked above.

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Thanks Osiris. Yes, I have removed certbot-auto and accidentally removed other files, except for directories in /usr/local/bin. So, I shall proceed to step 3 and continue with the remaining instructions.

  1. Delete the certbot-auto script. If you placed it in /usr/local/bin like we recommended, you can delete it by running sudo rm /usr/local/bin/certbot-auto .

3. Delete the Certbot installation created by certbot-auto by running sudo rm -rf /opt/eff.org .

Thanks again, Osiris! I appreciate your assistance!

1 Like

Yep! 

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