:: Re: [DNG] What not to back up
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Author: Mike Tubby
Date:  
To: dng
Subject: Re: [DNG] What not to back up


On 24/11/2021 10:08, Olaf Meeuwissen via Dng wrote:
> Hi Hendrik,
>
> Hendrik Boom writes:
>
>> I'm setting up a new backup script that will do it all piecemeal so
>> that if a part of it fails, it can be retried without having to start
>> *everythng* over from scratch.
>>
>> Which top-level filesystems should *not* be backed up.
>>
>> To start with, I presumably shouldn't back up
>>
>> /proc
>> /tmp
>> /dev (cause I'm using some version of *udev)
>> /mnt
> ACK.
>
>> and I certainly should back up /var, /usr. /root, /bin,
>> /boot, /etc, /home, /lib, /lib64, /sbin
> I wouldn't bother with /var/cache and /var/log but you're talking
> top-level ;-)


... but if you run a nameserver you may well need:

    /var/cache/bind

as that's where your zonefiles are ;-)


> /boot is managed by installing kernel images and grub (using settings in
> /etc/grub) so isn't all that important to include. At least on amd64.
>
>> But what about
>>
>> /run
>> /srv
>> /sys
>> ?
> Both /run and /sys are tmpfs file systems. Not worth backing up.



However some admins put services in:

    /srv

and some third-party suppliers of software place it in:

    /opt

for example Sophos anti-virus.

> Basically, you should only care about a subset of what lives below the
> mount points listed by
>
>    df | grep ^/ | awk '{print $6}'

>
> and make sure your backup command doesn't cross file system boundaries.
> That should automatically exclude things like /dev, /proc, /run, /sys
> and may (or may not) exclude /tmp (depending on installation choices).
> As /mnt is meant for temporary mounts, that should be excluded too.
>
>> What are those even used for?
> I would have pointed you to the FHS but as Lars pointed out already `man
> 7 hier` will tell.
>
> Of course, if you don't use things like /srv and /opt, there's not much
> of a cost to backing up the empty directories :-)
>
> Hope this helps,
> --
> Olaf Meeuwissen, LPIC-2            FSF Associate Member since 2004-01-27
>   GnuPG key: F84A2DD9/B3C0 2F47 EA19 64F4 9F13  F43E B8A4 A88A F84A 2DD9
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