On Wed, 2002-08-21 at 13:22, Graham Wright wrote:
> I have been trying to find out what the dump program does with the /proc and /dev
>directories and their contents. I would think that it knows how to intelligently deal
>with the files it finds in these directories.
>
> I am trying to understand exactly what I should back up on my system and am aiming
>at doing a complete system backup.
There was a lenghty discussion on this sometime ago - search the slug
archives at www.slug.org.au.
Essentially, /proc should not be backed up as it is a "window" into the
running kernel and basically created by the running kernel. You don't
want to save this snapshot as it si not relevant to another runtime.
I don't believe that /dev should be backed up either as most of it
should also be created during installation.
I guess it comes down to your back-up philosophy.
Mine is that if the system goes down badly enough to require a reinstall
of essential system stuff e.g. /dev then you're better off doing a
reinstall to ensure things are in a good, known state.
To that end I backup:
* /boot as it contains my personal kernel images and configs
* /etc as it contains all the system wide configs which you WILL
want to restore.
* /home as it has user files and configs
* /var/log might be useful.
* Any other directories with stuff you've generated e.g.
/usr/local/...
* A dump of the debs/rpms installed on the system. This way you
know what to reinstall if the unthinkable happens.
This keeps the size of the back-up to one CD for me (well, that's not
all the /home stuff).
Anyway, that's my 2c worth on system backups.
I'm sure others will have some interesting and varied opinions too.
--
**************
* Simon Wong *
**************
--
SLUG - Sydney Linux User's Group - http://slug.org.au/
More Info: http://lists.slug.org.au/listinfo/slug
