Hardware and Software failures are part of Life. That is why you need to have a backup. However, you do not need to backup all installed binaries (mostly software). In order to reinstall or restore your installed software you need to have a list of all installed software. This tutorial show how to backup list of installed software and apply it when needed after crash. It will not just save your time but both Debian and RHEL distro can update them instantly for you.
Nice ideas, though I’ve never had to test them in anger. Of course, reinstalling like this won’t reinstall all your settings which can take far longer to replace than the OS, let alone any lost files. You just get the programs back.
My own, crude system involves daily back-ups of vital files using plbackitup and less frequent snapshots of the whole partition using a Linux Rescue CD and partimage, on to an external HD. But, every little bit helps. Another good one for the Debian way.
I thought it ran forever and never crashed. Was I misinformed?
Hardware dies. And people do silly things.
If you back up /etc/ and /var (and /home of course) though, you should have 99.999% of data and configuration files.
Except for the odd thing like /opt, or programs that do things in /usr (whhhy!?)
That said, backing up /var doesn’t work 100% for some database systems such as SQL servers, LDAP, and so on. These generally require a specfic dump or backup command.
No, you were not misinformed. This is just a precautionary measure in case the world as we know it comes to an end and you need to restore your data after the reboot into the new world.
No, you were not misinformed.
So, you’re saying it never crashes?
“I thought it ran forever and never crashed. Was I misinformed?”
Please don’t feed the trolls.
Thanks you.
I wasn’t trolling. Every Linux user that I’ve ever talked to says that Linux never crashes. Simply asking a question.
Either you are A. looking to start a flame war because you are bored (or plain stupid) or B. you have little, if any, understanding on how computers work. (Hardware problems? 2bit memory parity errors? Multiple disk crash? PSU death? Core overheating?).
Go find someone else to play with. I’m in no mod to waste time on Windows vs. Linux flame wars.
Had a thought on this once. Could try this shell script, it reads the basic personality files , routing tables etc. of a machine and writes a template in a single file of /etc/gnxconfig and will reconfigure a machine according to it’s contents in reverse in all or part. I mailed it and the tool to my webmail account. There are iptable firewall scripts that read it too.
config tool:
http://gnnix.org/base/root/dist/usr/src/gnxbootscripts-0.8/sbin/gnx…
optional config using firewall, handles dynamic ip too:
http://gnnix.org/base/root/dist/usr/src/gnxbootscripts-0.8/sbin/ini…
http://gnnix.org/base/root/dist/usr/src/gnxbootscripts-0.8/etc/fire…
firewall uses this ipcalc:
http://gnnix.org/base/root/dist/usr/src/ipcalc-1.0/
forgot handy drop utility:
http://gnnix.org/base/root/dist/usr/src/gnxbootscripts-0.8/sbin/dro…
One file to rule them all, One file to find them, One file to bring them all and in the darkness bind them.
Edited 2006-08-25 01:39
Oh yes, it’s so simple it doesn’t need to be mentionned :
$ pacman -Ql > backup
$ ./restore.sh
[…]
$ cat restore.sh
#!/bin/bash
for i in `cat backup | awk ‘{ print $1 }’`
do
pacman -S $i
done
Well, I know, it could be more simple, but I think it’s not bad