Accidentally overwrote file instead of appending. Is there hope?

Question

I accidentally did this:

command > ~/.bash_profile

Instead of

command >> ~/.bash_profile

I know, I'm an idiot. Is there a way to recover the old .bash_profile file?

Thanks a lot for your help

PS: The machine is a macbook pro with Leopard.

Answer 1

Unless you had Time Machine or some other backup of the file, it's gone.

If that was the original .bash_profile, according to this page, the default setup for users is stored in /System/Library/User Template/English.lproj, you should be able to get another copy of the original from there. Or just create a new user and take theirs.

Answer 2

It's possible but unlikely. The effort involved in recovering it will most likely be harder than simply rewriting it or recovering it from a backup.