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idea for a backup tool

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kanliot
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Joined: 2013-09-02 08:00

idea for a backup tool

#1 Post by kanliot »

Basically should work on any computer, it goes through the hard drive and presents a list of things you should probably back up before a fresh install.

so it has two big lists, easily collapsible. And operates as a checklist of things for users to back up before removing their system files.

This is important because people need a checklist of things to back up before they do a fresh install.

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GarryRicketson
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Re: idea for a backup tool

#2 Post by GarryRicketson »

I think I would rather decide for myself what I need to back up, and what I want to back up.

The idea of someone else, or some program telling me what I need to back up just does not appeal to me.
Besides that, there are plenty of good back up tools available all ready, for example 'rsync'
and the -v option can be used to see for sure that the files you need to back up are getting correctly backed up:
from

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man rsync
----snip---
-v, --verbose
              This option increases the amount of information you are given
              during the transfer.  By default, rsync works silently. A single
              -v will give you information about what files are being
              transferred and a brief summary at the end. Two -v options will
              give you information on what files are being skipped and
              slightly more information at the end. More than two -v options
              should only be used if you are debugging rsync.

              In a modern rsync, the -v option is equivalent to the setting of
              groups of --info and --debug options.  You can choose to use
              these newer options in addition to, or in place of using
              --verbose, as any fine-grained settings override the implied
              settings of -v.  Both --info and --debug have a way to ask for
              help that tells you exactly what flags are set for each increase
              in verbosity.
and yes you can also tell rsync which files to skip, etc, if so desired.
Any way, thanks for the idea, I don't think any one ever thought of this before :mrgreen:
For those that are not sure what they should or need to backup, there are some lists available, checklist of things to back up before they do a fresh install of Debian
One, for example, is for upgrading,;
from: https://www.debian.org/releases/stable/ ... ata-backup
4.1.1. Back up any data or configuration information

Before upgrading your system, it is strongly recommended that you make a full backup, or at least back up any data or configuration information you can't afford to lose. The upgrade tools and process are quite reliable, but a hardware failure in the middle of an upgrade could result in a severely damaged system.

The main things you'll want to back up are the contents of /etc, /var/lib/dpkg, /var/lib/apt/extended_states and the output of dpkg --get-selections "*" (the quotes are important). If you use aptitude to manage packages on your system, you will also want to back up /var/lib/aptitude/pkgstates.

The upgrade process itself does not modify anything in the /home directory. However, some applications (e.g. parts of the Mozilla suite, and the GNOME and KDE desktop environments) are known to overwrite existing user settings with new defaults when a new version of the application is first started by a user. As a precaution, you may want to make a backup of the hidden files and directories (“dotfiles”) in users' home directories. This backup may help to restore or recreate the old settings. You may also want to inform users about this.

Any package installation operation must be run with superuser privileges, so either log in as root or use su or sudo to gain the necessary access rights.

The upgrade has a few preconditions; you should check them before actually executing the upgrade.
Some one did ask here: https://unix.stackexchange.com/question ... to-back-up
There are some good answers,
At the start:
As this question has many different answers, the following list should combine the suggestions into one comprehensive list:

Under most circumstances you want to backup these:
and at the end,
You have to decide yourself on these:

/var/local/ you normally know if you stored something here and whether you want it on a backup or not.
/var/opt/ see /var/local/ or better check if something important is stored here.
/var/log/ depends on whether your logs are important to you and if you have enough space to store them (they might take a lot of backup space over time).
To sum it up, I would never use some tool that tries to decide for me , what I need to back up and what I don't need,
Last edited by GarryRicketson on 2019-03-21 19:02, edited 2 times in total.

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stevepusser
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Re: idea for a backup tool

#3 Post by stevepusser »

It seems to me you're talking about aptik-gtk: https://github.com/teejee2008/aptik-gtk
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HuangLao
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Re: idea for a backup tool

#4 Post by HuangLao »

Just configure rsync (or grsync or better yet luckybackup) to do regular backups.

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stevepusser
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Re: idea for a backup tool

#5 Post by stevepusser »

HuangLao wrote:Just configure rsync (or grsync or better yet luckybackup) to do regular backups.
And that restores your system the way you had it perfected, after a fresh install...how?
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Head_on_a_Stick
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Re: idea for a backup tool

#6 Post by Head_on_a_Stick »

stevepusser wrote:And that restores your system the way you had it perfected, after a fresh install...how?
Just reverse the source & destination in the rsync command :)

I use this method: https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Rs ... tem_backup
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GarryRicketson
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Re: idea for a backup tool

#7 Post by GarryRicketson »

In this case, and I just did it yesterday:
I backed up my home directory ,

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rsync -ravh /home/garry/ /mnt/home-3-2019/ 
Now , if something happens, like a power failure, and my home dir becomes in accessible,
no big deal , in reverse I can just use the back up I made:

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rsync -ravh /mnt/home-3-2019/  /home/garry/

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edbarx
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Re: idea for a backup tool

#8 Post by edbarx »

I use fsarchiver for the reason it produces a single large file. With fsarchiver an archived partition can be restored to a physically larger partition.

The package fsarchiver is in the Debian repositories.
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Re: idea for a backup tool

#9 Post by L_V »

For investigation: borgbackup

"BorgBackup (short: Borg) is a deduplicating backup program. Optionally, it supports compression and authenticated encryption.
The main goal of Borg is to provide an efficient and secure way to backup data.
The data deduplication technique used makes Borg suitable for daily backups since only changes are stored.."
https://borgbackup.readthedocs.io/en/stable/

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sunrat
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Re: idea for a backup tool

#10 Post by sunrat »

I back up HOME and other data with rsync. It can be scheduled with systemd timer or cron. Also do a regular full backup of root partition with Clonezilla so I can recover a total meltdown in a few minutes..

GarryRicketson wrote:In this case, and I just did it yesterday:
I backed up my home directory ,

Code: Select all

rsync -ravh /home/garry/ /mnt/home-3-2019/ 
-r is redundant as -a includes that option. See man rsync.
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Remember to BACKUP!

n_hologram
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Re: idea for a backup tool

#11 Post by n_hologram »

To sum it up, I would never use some tool that tries to decide for me , what I need to back up and what I don't need...
Yeah you're gonna have to do that research yourself. I keep my non-refundables on a separate partition and back them up to a spare directory. Here's the script I use if you're interested. (You can also modify it for use on other platforms, like android.)
bester69 wrote:There is nothing to install in linux, from time to time i go to google searching for something fresh to install in linux, but, there is nothing
the crunkbong project: scripts, operating system, the list goes on...

andre@home
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Re: idea for a backup tool

#12 Post by andre@home »

Hard disk are so cheap nowadays, I always have a full image/disk of my total boot disk.
That's also my backup to get the server back in a few minutes.
Another tool I have is a persistent live usb boot disk with Debian 8. It has all the config files (Apache/Webdav) as on the full disk.
I can run that one even on other hardware if needed to get things on line asap (things= webdav server).
Works all since end of 2011.
A second server on another location holds the same (backup) files.
I clone with G4L (Ghost for Linux).

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