Best tool to use

[hurin]

Hi,

I do use linux from some time ( 3 years, but not continuously,...), but i'm still completly lost when it comes to "hard part" of linux, like tabs, or grub, uefi, etc.

I do install "lots" of tools, and change my configurations often, wich some times results in undesirable behavior from my debian, and, wich is morse, sometimes event prevent me from login, and / or miss the grub part, wich is what happened to me 2 weeks ago.

Long story short, i did reinstall my os and my tools , configurations, etc. 3 times in 2 weeks.

I know i should be more cautious about what i install, how i did it and so on, but still, i would like to know what is the best way to save my tools and configurations so that it would be easier to recover my worstation if i crash my os again,...
( By "tools" i mean nginx, xdebug, phpStorm, python, anaconda, etc. )

Do anyone know what is the best way to do so, i did hear about docker, or making an iso, and i don't know what are the pros and cons of those solutions, so if anyone could help me on this subject i would gladly listen to him !

Thanks in advance !

[cronoik]

A bit old fashioned, but have you considered to create backups?

[hurin]

Hi cronoik,

yes, i did for sure, and i've got backup of my data, ( all that i've got in my home ), and thanks to those backup i haven't lost any data !

But here i'm talking about configurations, .bin and so on, is there a way to save them and put them back again, on a simple click ?

Thanks anyway for your answer

[kc1di]

Have you considered timeshift? You can learn more here: https://www.unixmen.com/timeshift-resto ... ous-state/

[cronoik]

But here i'm talking about configurations, .bin and so on, is there a way to save them and put them back again, on a simple click ?

It is not forbidden to create a backup of configuration files.

[CwF]

Do anyone know what is the best way to do so, i did hear about docker, or making an iso, and i don't know what are the pros and cons of those solutions, so if anyone could help me on this subject i would gladly listen to him !!

How about a filemanager and a usb stick. IMO most tools to help are fat and introduce complexity if not chicken eggs.

To explain, my need for backup is in a few different flavors and the number of times I've reinstalled to what was is exactly zero. So it all depends on how you do things.
On my main hypervisor the number of things in /home worth saving is zero. Most important things I've changed are elsewhere.
In my "user" vm's 99% of the flavor exist in /home.
I've installed debian 4 times. All still exist.

So, on the usb stick I use a directory structure that is standard, with /home, /etc, etc, which has each file that I've ever needed to modify where it would normally exist. Many files can have an embedded explanation.
That same usb can be a bootable system, howver you like it. For me, no DE, but xorg by itself gives xterm some prettiness.
That same usb could have the capacity perhaps to hold multiple images if you keep a sane size.
That same usb should have qemu-utilities to manipulate images, ie copy from file to device. You can also use dd.
That same usb stick can hold a local repository.

The images you make don't need to be huge and compression can leave a 120GB image with a 6+GB file, maybe 60GB. The size can be grown to the device size once imaged to it.

This can be created in a vm as can everything. It can be written out and boot a real machine, so why not...
A base image can be created and updated in a vm. It can be simple or full blown, geared to save your time

Since this is all manually done and I forget, use a cherrytree file to document everything. It could be a txt file.

Perhaps a long road of learning, but with such a handle on the base system you can install to anything offline. That's why I came up with this convoluted way since iso's and internet are not always available.

[hurin]

First of all, thanks for all your answers, it's really nice of you !

i'm going to have a look on timeshift, cause it looks to me it's the feature i was looking for, and seems the most straigthforward way to get this functionnality,...

Anyway thanks for your explanations, it was really helpful !

Have a nice day o/