wow.... thanks for the wonderful information. In fact, thanks to everyone who responded. I truly appreciate the input. Cleve
> > From: will hill <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > Date: 2003/10/30 Thu PM 12:25:31 EST > To: [email protected] > Subject: Re: [brlug-general] any comments or ideas on backing up?? > > On 2003.10.30 05:34 Challison wrote: > > Good Morning All, > > > > ...it is assuming that the administrator would perform a fresh > > install and then restore the files to the new existing directories and > > overwrite everything. > > > > My question is twofold: > > > > What is your opinion of this method, and if you feel that is it lacking > > then how would you improve it? > > > > and > > > > Are there other vital directories that have been left out that are > > needed? > > Nothing is really vital, is it? When you have more than one machine running, > it's easy to get configuration files you forgot about off the other machine. > /etc/X11/XF86Config or XF86Config-4 is the only file that bugs me when I > don't have it, so I put them on an ftp server with the machine name attached > to it. Windows adds complications to this picture that I don't bother with, > but free software can be very useful for people who do. > > It is much easier to do an install than it is to make backups of system > files. This seems strange to people in the Windoze world, where CDs and > "original" software have value, and bad things happen in DLL/Registry land, > but it's true. The binaries are available and the ones you get from your > favorite distro are better than the old ones on a CD. In a corporate > environment you would have one or two default images you would keep up. This > would have been done with partimage or similar. The real and important > information is all in home and etc. Home has everything your users will care > about that's not on a central server. For individuals, a fresh install > almost always works better. > > To improve the script, I'd tar things directly rather than make copies and > I'd not do /etc and /home at the same time. /etc does not change as often as > things in /home do. Also, the copy eliminates time stamp information you > want to have in your backup. Tar maintains that information and has the > ability to do incremental backups. It's hard to find the file you want when > you make too many backups. > > Over time, backups have become less important to me. I've never lost > anything due to a system failure, even when hard drives failed. The last two > times hard drives failed on me, I had plenty of time to get the information > off them. I've never suffered a system failure due to software. OK, I run > boring old Debian stable, but it is as it says it is. Because of this and > the ease of setting up a new system, I don't feel compelled to back up system > files. I've not had to worry about Windblows because I hardly use the one > copy I have and don't let it see the network. I've got free software to get > at all my windows based work, so when my last install of windblows dies, it's > simply gone. I hardly use my scanner anyway. I've backed up classwork, > projects and work files one thing at a time. Things that are really > important, like my first year of baby pictures or my mom's 45s get made into > CDs that I give other people. New pictures and work files get transfered > back and forth between a desktop and a laptop, so multiple copies exist. > Window manager settings and that sort of thing are just too easy to tweak > out, so I don't bother with .kde and all that. In fact, I kind of like each > computer I use to have it's own personality. > > To backup projects I'm working on, I first back up everything: > > cd project > cd ../ > find project -type f > list > vi list > tar cvf project.tar `cat list` > > Then, as I feel like it, I make an incremental backup: > > cd project > cd ../ > find project -type f -newer list > new_list > vi new_list > tar cvf project_date.tar `cat new_list` > mv new_list list > > You might have other complications if you use symlinks in your project, but > those too can be followed and backed up. You can script this if you have > many projects. Use something like: > > date_stamp=`date -I` > echo $date_stamp > > to get the date into your filename. > > There are many fine backup scripts available for every conceivable purpose > under heaven out there on the web. It might be a nice lecture for the newbie > group. It's not on > http://groups.yahoo.com/group/cccclinuxsig/files/class_outline.txt so I'll > mention it next week. > > > _______________________________________________ > General mailing list > [email protected] > http://brlug.net/mailman/listinfo/general_brlug.net >
