On Sun, Jan 05, 2020 at 09:41:10AM -0700, Alan Feuerbacher wrote: > > This brings up another issue: when should someone playing with LFS try to > figure the problem out for herself, as opposed to contacting this list? I > usually do the former as far as I know how, until I get stuck. Sometimes I > don't know enough to say "I'm stuck." >
Trying to sort it out for yourself is good, and (at least in my own case) saves some of the embarrassment). But when someone needs to ask, describing what they have done (and any variations) is helpful. [...] > > What do you use for backup on Linux? For many years, on my Windows computer, > I've had two extra backup disks installed, and use Acronis to do incremental > backups to one of those disks every day. Every couple of weeks I switch the > backup to the other disk, so I have some redundancy. > At the risk of pissing you off, it depends what you mean by backup ;-) It also depends on what hardware you have. In my own case (one machine running 24/7 as my homw server, which holds my sources, list mail, notes, media files, and a number of desktop or laptop machines which run from time to time and which may contain several LFS systems that I still ty to keep usable) : · Rsync over nfs to a '/staging' drive (so, I do not run rsync as a daemon on the server). Scheduled from root's fcrontab, or run manually by root after updating kernels or packages on older systems. In many cases I will use these files when I need to recover something I have just trashed, or to compare text config files (/etc, udev, grub.cfg) across different systems. · A RAID-1 pair, on which the "next stage" backups are written, simulating some of the features of generation data groups (i.e. relative numbering so latest is always .0) and using rsync with hard links (to save space) - this has the down-side that damage to a file affects all the "generations" in which that variant exists. I've seen that in the past when memory went bad, the files on disk were probably ok. · Periodically, tar up the latest generations and write those to external usb3 drives. When disconnected, these meet the definition of backups, unless my house gets destroyed. Originally I had linux on one machine, and then a main machine and another for testing things. If that was my situation today, I would tar up the files and write to an external (usb3) drive. Having at least two systems, so that backups of a trashed system can be installed from the other system, helps. Also, having enough space to untar the backup if things go wrong is important. Some of my files are nice to have, but if I lost them it would not be disastrous (e.g. git trees for packages). I tend to put those in an area which is not backed up, and then from time to time I might copy them to an external drive. I've given enough detail to possibly be insulting, because multiple drives installed in the same machine are in some circumstances not a backup. I've had a machine fail and take down the disk controller in the old days of IDE. All backup strategies need to decide what likely problems may occur. In my own case, mail only gets copied every few hours - if I accidentally delete a mail before the mbox has been backed up it is gone, as I discovered the other day. As with everything else, there are costs to stronger systems. ĸen -- The right of the people to keep and arm Bears, shall not be infringed. -- http://lists.linuxfromscratch.org/listinfo/lfs-support FAQ: http://www.linuxfromscratch.org/blfs/faq.html Unsubscribe: See the above information page Do not top post on this list. A: Because it messes up the order in which people normally read text. Q: Why is top-posting such a bad thing? A: Top-posting. Q: What is the most annoying thing in e-mail? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Posting_style
