On Sun, 5 Jan 1997, ugs wrote: > Before I tell you what I do to make a perfect and bootable copy of your > current Linux setup, let me tell you how I have my hard drives configured.
on the one hand this sounds like a good system because your backup is bootable, but some problems come to mind. mostly with the theory, not the method. i'm assuming that you just keep one backup copy, so correct me if i am wrong. the problem with this is that if you backup errors or a program upgrade that you later decided that you didn't want you can't get to the previous backups because you just overwrote them with the new backup. also, it is better to put backups on removable media so that it is possible to move them offsite. and that doesn't mean that you are stuck with tape drives either -- i use a Jaz drive. i also organize my linux installation so that backups are small but important stuff is always safeguarded. first, when i use a distribution (i use Redhat at the moment but wish to switch to Debian once things settle down a bit with the 1.2 release) i use it just to get the basic system installed and up and running. basically i still have a stock Redhat distribution on my drive. i then make good use of /usr/local/ (which is on a seperate partition) by downloading all `extra' software that i don't feel serves as basic part of the unix system in .tgz format. I then install them to the /usr/local/ filesystem making symlinks to places elsewhere, but only if required (you can change a lot of default behavior and installation locations at compile time if you just futz around a bit). (`basic' may be different for everyone but for me it includes: the base system, XFree86, libraries, TeX/LaTeX, basic text editors, development stuff, and anything related to the _basic_ operation of the system). that way i can just backup /usr/local/, any configuration files throughout the system, the mail and news spools, and the /home filesystem. all the `basic' unix applications and tools can be reinstalled from a distribution as the core system. then my /usr/local/, /home/, and /var/ filesystems can be restored from backups and mounted into the system. hopefully this makes sense to someone. any comments would be greatly appreciated. -- This message was delayed because the list mail delivery agent was down.
