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magicrescue

1.1.8 open-source

Scans block devices for recognizable file types using magic bytes and extracts them, functioning as an undelete and drive recovery utility.

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Summary

magicrescue is an open-source command-line utility that scans a block device for known file types by matching magic bytes and hands each match to an external program for extraction, working as both an undelete tool and a recovery aid for corrupted drives or partitions. It suits DFIRDFIRDigital forensics and incident response, investigating what happened during a security incident and containing it. The work includes preserving evidence, reconstructing activity and restoring systems. practitioners and system administrators handling disk recovery or forensic carving tasks, rather than anyone needing a polished GUIGUIA graphical user interface, controls such as windows, buttons and menus. It lets people use software visually rather than entering commands.. It runs directly against raw devices on any UNIXish system with no dependencies beyond a C library, though its own README warns it should only be run in a sandboxed environment given the unsafe languages and arbitrary disk data involved. First committed in 2018 with three contributors, the project carries a formal deprecation notice from its author and has seen no commits in the past year, so it should be treated as a stable but unmaintained tool.

Scans block devices for recognizable file types using magic bytes and extracts them, functioning as an undelete and drive recovery utility.

How magicrescue helps

Which deleted files can still be pulled off a drive after the filesystem has forgotten about them?

scans the raw block device for known magic byte signatures and hands each match to an external extraction program, independent of what the filesystem's directory entries say

Can a corrupted or unmountable partition still yield usable files?

reads magic bytes directly off the block device rather than through the filesystem, so files come back as long as their data is still physically present

What file types can be recovered from this disk right now?

matches disk contents against a set of known magic byte signatures and only acts on the types it recognizes, so the answer is bounded by which signatures are defined

Which parts of a large disk actually contain recoverable data worth extracting?

walks the raw device sequentially checking for signature matches, turning an entire block device into a set of located, extractable files rather than a wall of undifferentiated bytes

all 3 features, with the evidence for each →

Languages

Not documented

Features

3 capabilities

Built from magicrescue's releases, docs, README and our own runs. “Seen” marks the month we first spotted a release the vendor didn't date. Group names and tags are our labels.

Compare with peers →

  • magicrescue covers 1 of the 8 investigation and response capabilities we track.

What magicrescue offers you

  • Command-line interface1
All capabilities 3 capabilities
File recovery from block devices shipped Scans block devices for recognizable file types using magic bytes and extracts them, functioning as an undelete and drive recovery utility. 28 releases · 7 other sources · first seen Mar 2004

Shared capability: Disk and filesystem forensics

Also counts toward: Command-line interface

release 28 total

  • Adds GIMP xcf file support via a new tools/gimp-resave.pl recovery script and recipes/gimp-xcf recipe r306 | jbj | 2004-07-08 23:12:12 +0200 (Thu, 08 Jul 2004) | 1 line · Jul 2004 · source · release history
  • textextract -M option added to set a maximum file size limit. r283 | jbj | 2004-05-30 23:02:20 +0200 (Sun, 30 May 2004) | 5 lines · May 2004 · source · release history
  • dupemap.c now stores 0-length keys in DBMs that support it. r260 | jbj | 2004-05-04 19:49:05 +0200 (Tue, 04 May 2004) | 1 line · May 2004 · source · release history
  • Allows the -r <directory> argument to automatically load all recipe files within that directory 1.1.1 · May 2004 · source · release history
  • Adds the -b flag to align file recovery operations to block boundaries 1.1.1 · May 2004 · source · release history
  • Adds recipes/zip to detect and recover standard ZIP archives 1.1.1 · May 2004 · source · release history

docs

  • Scans block devices for recognizable file types using magic bytes and extracts them, functioning as an undelete and drive recovery utility.

example

  • Recover deleted GIMP XCF project files from disk images or raw dumps. magicrescue -r recipes/gimp-xcf <image_file> r306 | jbj | 2004-07-08 23:12:12 +0200 (Thu, 08 Jul 2004) | 1 line · Jul 2004 · source
  • Use a single scanner instance across different file format recipes instead of instantiating it per recipe. magicrescue -b -x ext4 -x ntfs r214 | jbj | 2004-04-29 22:52:00 +0200 (Thu, 29 Apr 2004) | 1 line · Apr 2004 · source
  • Extract signatures aligned to disk block boundaries. magicrescue -b /dev/sda1 r193 | jbj | 2004-04-21 00:17:08 +0200 (Wed, 21 Apr 2004) | 1 line · Apr 2004 · source
  • Run magicrescue with default arguments (no explicit path). magicrescue r150 | jbj | 2004-04-06 20:34:41 +0200 (Tue, 06 Apr 2004) | 4 lines · Apr 2004 · source
  • Recover a gzip file from raw disk data. magicrescue -d recovered/ -r gzip /dev/sda1 1.0.1 · Mar 2004 · source
  • Extract MP3 files with ID3 tags from a disk image. magicrescue -d recovered/ -r mp3-id3 /dev/sda1 1.0.1 · Mar 2004 · source
File format recipe support shipped Supports specific file formats (e.g., FLAC, Canon CR2) via dedicated parsing recipes. 6 releases · 2 other sources · first seen Jan 2008

release

  • Adds recipes/mbox, recipes/mbox-mozilla-inbox, and recipes/mbox-mozilla-sent to recover mbox-format email archives 1.1.8 · Nov 2009 · source · release history
  • magicrescue now supports mbox, mbox-mozilla-inbox, and mbox-mozilla-sent recipes to extract data from mailbox files. r824 | jbj | 2009-11-03 10:00:58 +0100 (Tue, 03 Nov 2009) | 1 line · Nov 2009 · source · release history
  • Raises the maximum virtual memory usage for helper programs from 50MB to 1024MB via the config file config.d/50getrlimit 1.1.8 · Nov 2009 · source · release history
  • Adds ppm recipe to recover PPM format images 1.1.6 · Feb 2009 · source · release history
  • Add flac recipe 1.1.5 · Jan 2008 · source · release history
  • Add a recipe for Canon CR2 RAW files 1.1.5 · Jan 2008 · source · release history

example

  • Extract messages from an Mozilla-style inbox file. magicrescue -r mbox-mozilla-inbox disk_image.raw r824 | jbj | 2009-11-03 10:00:58 +0100 (Tue, 03 Nov 2009) | 1 line · Nov 2009 · source
  • Extract messages from a standard mbox file using the new recipe. magicrescue -r mbox disk_image.raw r824 | jbj | 2009-11-03 10:00:58 +0100 (Tue, 03 Nov 2009) | 1 line · Nov 2009 · source
Documentation documented Provides manuals and documentation for the tool's commands. 1 other source

docs

  • jbj / magicrescue Public Notifications Fork 4 Star 10 File tree Expand file tree Collapse file tree Open diff view settings Filter options NEWS doc dupemap.1 magicrescue.1 magicsort.1 Expand file tree Collapse file tree Open diff view settings Collapse file NEWS Copy file name to clipboard Expand all lines: NEWS +… seen Aug 2026 · source

Lines in monospace are the tool's own words: help text parsed from its source, or an endpoint from its API document. Under release, a line is our summary of a dated release. Under docs, it is quoted from the tool's own documentation or website. Each links back to the source it came from.

Score card

  1. Shipping velocity releases a month, last 12 months
  2. Documentation quality release-notes rubric, 0–100
  3. Breaking-change discipline how rarely a release breaks users, and notice given
  4. Maintenance risk quiet time against its own cadence, maintainers
  5. Innovation & surface new capabilities, API and MCP surface
  6. Community health
  7. Contributor trend distinct committers, this year against last
  8. Maintainer concentration bus factor now against a year ago
  9. Issue backlog trend issues closed per issue opened, 12 months
  10. Responsiveness median time to a maintainer’s first reply

Nine scores for magicrescue, each built from the releases, notes and API history this site tracks — and, on Researcher and Business, where it stands among every measured tool in its category and how that has moved.

Score cards are part of every paid plan.

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Each score is 0–100 on a published rubric, derived from data this site already shows. A dimension we cannot measure says so — it is never scored 0 and never enters a rank.

How this is scored
  • Shipping velocity — releases a month over the last 12 months, on a log scale where 16 a month scores 100. Needs 3 releases in the window.
  • Documentation quality — the release-notes rubric published on the analytics page, unchanged.
  • Breaking-change discipline — the share of releases carrying a breaking change (none scores 100, half or more scores 0). Only projects that label breaking changes are measured: a clean record cannot be told from an unlabelled one.
  • Maintenance risk — quiet time measured against the tool's own release cadence (quiet longer than 90 days and three typical gaps scores 0), plus the number of active maintainers and whether contributors are growing, where known. Higher is lower risk.
  • Innovation & surface — new capabilities in the feature ledger this year, API and MCP operations added, and the share of commits that are features: the mean of whichever we hold.
  • Community health (open-source tools only) — each is a direction, not a size: contributors this year against last, the bus factor now against a year ago, and issues closed per issue opened, where steady scores 50, doubled 100 and halved 0; plus the median time to a maintainer's first reply (an hour scores about 100, a month or more 0). A commercial card has no repository and carries none of the four.
  • Documented delivery (commercial tools) — when a vendor's documented new capabilities have slowed against its own baseline, that counts against the overall standing as heavily as two low dimensions. Steady delivery, or too little history to judge, leaves the standing alone; it is never a sixth score.
  • Open-source tools are scored on repository signals; commercial tools on their published changelog. Ranks compare tools within one category and one profile and need at least five measured peers; the overall standing needs three ranked dimensions. Best-in-breed or consolidator is a shape, not a quality, and is never scored.

Release-note detail over time

See how much detail magicrescue puts in its release notes, quarter by quarter, and compare it with tracked tools in the same category. This history uses up to ten retained, reviewed notes per tool; sparse or blank older quarters may reflect that limit.

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Releases

Show

19 entries

  1. November 20092
  4. February 20091
  6. January 20081
  8. July 20041
  10. May 20043
  14. April 20046
  21. March 20045
    Show

    19 entries

    1. 1.1.8 Nov 3, 2009 · release notes

      Magicrescue 1.1.8 adds mbox recovery recipes and raises helper memory limit.

      └──▷ GET THIS VERSION 
      $ git clone --branch 1.1.8 https://github.com/jbj/magicrescue.git
# already have the repo? check out this version:
$ git checkout 1.1.8
      • Adds recipes/mbox, recipes/mbox-mozilla-inbox, and recipes/mbox-mozilla-sent to recover mbox-format email archives
      • Raises the maximum virtual memory usage for helper programs from 50MB to 1024MB via the config file config.d/50getrlimit

      2 details in Everything

    2. r824 | jbj | 2009-11-03 10:00:58 +0100 (Tue, 03 Nov 2009) | 1 line Nov 3, 2009 · release notes

      Adds mbox, mbox-mozilla-inbox, and mbox-mozilla-sent recipe support in magicrescue r824.

      └──▷ TRY IT
      Extract messages from a standard mbox file using the new recipe.
      $ magicrescue -r mbox disk_image.raw
      Extract messages from an Mozilla-style inbox file.
      $ magicrescue -r mbox-mozilla-inbox disk_image.raw
      • magicrescue now supports mbox, mbox-mozilla-inbox, and mbox-mozilla-sent recipes to extract data from mailbox files.

      1 detail in Everything

    3. 1.1.6 Feb 15, 2009 · release notes

      Add PPM recipe for magicrescue 1.1.6

      └──▷ GET THIS VERSION 
      $ git clone --branch 1.1.6 https://github.com/jbj/magicrescue.git
# already have the repo? check out this version:
$ git checkout 1.1.6
      • Adds ppm recipe to recover PPM format images

      1 detail in Everything

    4. 1.1.5 Jan 17, 2008 · release notes

      Adds recipes for Canon CR2 RAW and FLAC files to magicrescue 1.1.5

      └──▷ GET THIS VERSION 
      $ git clone --branch 1.1.5 https://github.com/jbj/magicrescue.git
# already have the repo? check out this version:
$ git checkout 1.1.5
      • Add a recipe for Canon CR2 RAW files
      • Add flac recipe

      2 details in Everything

    5. r306 | jbj | 2004-07-08 23:12:12 +0200 (Thu, 08 Jul 2004) | 1 line Jul 8, 2004 · release notes

      Adds gimp-resave.pl tool and gimp-xcf recipe to recover GIMP XCF files

      └──▷ TRY IT
      Recover deleted GIMP XCF project files from disk images or raw dumps.
      $ magicrescue -r recipes/gimp-xcf <image_file>
    6. r283 | jbj | 2004-05-30 23:02:20 +0200 (Sun, 30 May 2004) | 5 lines May 30, 2004 · release notes

      magicrescue r283 adds textextract file output and max size controls

      • textextract -M option added to set a maximum file size limit.

      1 detail in Everything

    7. r260 | jbj | 2004-05-04 19:49:05 +0200 (Tue, 04 May 2004) | 1 line May 4, 2004 · release notes

      magicrescue r260 supports storing 0-length keys in DBM backends.

      • dupemap.c now stores 0-length keys in DBMs that support it.

      1 detail in Everything

    8. 1.1.1 May 1, 2004 · release notes

      Adds block alignment with -b, ZIP recovery, and loading recipes from a directory.

      └──▷ GET THIS VERSION 
      $ git clone --branch 1.1.1 https://github.com/jbj/magicrescue.git
# already have the repo? check out this version:
$ git checkout 1.1.1
      • Adds the -b flag to align file recovery operations to block boundaries
      • Allows the -r <directory> argument to automatically load all recipe files within that directory
      • Adds recipes/zip to detect and recover standard ZIP archives

      3 details in Everything

    9. r214 | jbj | 2004-04-29 22:52:00 +0200 (Thu, 29 Apr 2004) | 1 line Apr 29, 2004 · release notes

      magicrescue r214 adds -b option for shared scanner across recipes

      └──▷ USE IT
      Use a single scanner instance across different file format recipes instead of instantiating it per recipe.
      shell 
      magicrescue -b -x ext4 -x ntfs
    10. r196 | jbj | 2004-04-24 17:47:26 +0200 (Sat, 24 Apr 2004) | 1 line Apr 24, 2004 · release notes

      Adds jpeg-exif and jpeg-jfif recipes to preserve non-image markers.

      • Added jpeg-exif recipe which preserves Exif metadata during extraction
      • Added jpeg-jfif recipe which preserves JFIF markers during extraction

      2 details in Everything

    11. r193 | jbj | 2004-04-21 00:17:08 +0200 (Wed, 21 Apr 2004) | 1 line Apr 21, 2004 · release notes

      Adds -b flag to align magic rescue output to block boundaries

      └──▷ TRY IT
      Extract signatures aligned to disk block boundaries.
      $ magicrescue -b /dev/sda1
      • Adds -b command-line flag for aligning extracted data to block boundaries

      1 detail in Everything

    12. 1.1.0 Apr 13, 2004 · release notes

      Adds dupemap tool with -d option in magicrescue and improves -M argument handling.

      └──▷ GET THIS VERSION 
      $ git clone --branch 1.1.0 https://github.com/jbj/magicrescue.git
# already have the repo? check out this version:
$ git checkout 1.1.0
      • Introduces the dupemap CLI utility for deduplicating files, replacing the internal 1pass operation.
      • Changes the -M flag from a boolean switch to an argument-taking option (-M <recipe_dir>).

      2 details in Everything

      └──▷ BREAKING ON UPGRADE
      • !The -1pass option is removed; users must now use -d instead.
      • !The -M option no longer accepts a boolean switch; it requires a directory argument (e.g., -M /path/to/recipes).
    13. r174 | jbj | 2004-04-12 22:27:15 +0200 (Mon, 12 Apr 2004) | 14 lines Apr 12, 2004 · release notes

      Adds -d option to dupemap replacing 1pass and hides temp db creation

      • Introduces dupemap -d option for duplicate detection, replacing the deprecated 1pass operation.

      1 detail in Everything

      └──▷ BREAKING ON UPGRADE
      • !The -v option to dupemap is removed; use the report operation instead.
    14. r150 | jbj | 2004-04-06 20:34:41 +0200 (Tue, 06 Apr 2004) | 4 lines Apr 6, 2004 · release notes

      Adds 1pass mode to scan and delete duplicates, and allows running with no path operands

      └──▷ USE IT
      Run magicrescue with default arguments (no explicit path).
      shell 
      magicrescue
    15. 1.0.3 Mar 23, 2004 · release notes

      magicrescue 1.0.3 adds ELFELFThe standard binary format for executables, shared libraries, and object files on Linux and most Unix-like systems, giving cyber tools a predictable structure to parse, instrument, or analyze compiled code. and OLE container support with smarter output naming.

      └──▷ GET THIS VERSION 
      $ git clone --branch 1.0.3 https://github.com/jbj/magicrescue.git
# already have the repo? check out this version:
$ git checkout 1.0.3
      • Add recipes/elf and tools/elfextract.pl to extract executable formats from raw bytes
      • Add recipes/msoffice, tools/oleextract.pl, and tools/ole_rename.pl to guess and rename OLE container file types

      2 details in Everything

    16. 1.0.2 Mar 15, 2004 · release notes

      magicrescue 1.0.2 adds -O flag scope control, setrlimit core dump prevention, and magicsort companion tool

      └──▷ GET THIS VERSION 
      $ git clone --branch 1.0.2 https://github.com/jbj/magicrescue.git
# already have the repo? check out this version:
$ git checkout 1.0.2
      • Includes new magicsort utility for post-processing rescued file batches

      1 detail in Everything

      └──▷ BREAKING ON UPGRADE
      • !The -o flag is renamed to -O; existing scripts using -o will break on upgrade.
    17. 1.0.1 Mar 5, 2004 · release notes

      magicrescue v1.0.1 adds gzip recipe and mp3 extractor with MP3 ID3/NOID3 support.

      └──▷ GET THIS VERSION 
      $ git clone --branch 1.0.1 https://github.com/jbj/magicrescue.git
# already have the repo? check out this version:
$ git checkout 1.0.1
      └──▷ USE IT
      Recover a gzip file from raw disk data.
      shell 
      magicrescue -d recovered/ -r gzip /dev/sda1
      Extract MP3 files with ID3 tags from a disk image.
      shell 
      magicrescue -d recovered/ -r mp3-id3 /dev/sda1
      • Adds recipes/gzip to support recovering gzipped files without recompression
      • Adds commands/mp3extract.pl, recipes/mp3-id3, and recipes/mp3-noid3 to extract MP3 data
      • Updates the PNG recipe so commands are executable.

      3 details in Everything

      └──▷ BREAKING ON UPGRADE
      • !The provemewrong.pl script renames its -m option to -r.
    18. r42 | jbj | 2004-03-04 22:40:53 +0100 (Thu, 04 Mar 2004) | 1 line Mar 4, 2004 · release notes

      magicrescue r42 adds mp3 extraction commands

      • Adds mp3extract.pl command to extract MP3 files from disk images
      • Adds mp3-id3 and mp3-noid3 recipes for MP3 extraction with and without ID3 tags

      2 details in Everything

    19. 1.0 Mar 1, 2004 · release notes

      magicrescue 1.0 adds an extension keyword to recipes.

      └──▷ GET THIS VERSION 
      $ git clone --branch 1.0 https://github.com/jbj/magicrescue.git
# already have the repo? check out this version:
$ git checkout 1.0
      • Add extension keyword in recipes

      1 detail in Everything

    Project health

    Issue, contributor and maintainer activity in jbj/magicrescue, 2023-10 – 2026-09, as of 2026-09-25. Twelve-month figures first; the trend lines run the whole window.

    1. Contributors 0 ±0 vs prior 12 months
    2. Maintainers 0 +0 joined · −0 left, last 12 months
    3. Bus factor 0 committers behind half the commits
    4. Community-filed not measured of issues opened, last 12 months
    5. Median time to close not measured issues closed, last 12 months
    6. Open backlog 1 of 3 issues ever filed
    1. Issues opened / month 0 · 0 communitymaintainers
    2. Open backlog 1
    3. Contributors / month 0
    4. Commits / month 0
    5. Stars 11
    Issue themes, last 12 months not measured

    Counts from the project's public repository and git history; no individuals are identified. Maintainers are the committers covering 80% of the last year's commits. how we measure this

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