From owner-freebsd-questions Mon Jan 27 23:39: 8 2003 Delivered-To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.FreeBSD.org (mx1.freebsd.org [216.136.204.125]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id D086E37B401 for ; Mon, 27 Jan 2003 23:39:07 -0800 (PST) Received: from mail019.syd.optusnet.com.au (mail019.syd.optusnet.com.au [210.49.20.160]) by mx1.FreeBSD.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 92B8143F79 for ; Mon, 27 Jan 2003 23:39:06 -0800 (PST) (envelope-from bsdbrett@optushome.com.au) Received: from kblam.gravity (c16544.eburwd2.vic.optusnet.com.au [210.49.183.163]) by mail019.syd.optusnet.com.au (8.11.1/8.11.1) with SMTP id h0S7cms30435; Tue, 28 Jan 2003 18:38:48 +1100 Date: Tue, 28 Jan 2003 17:39:47 +1100 From: Brett Harris To: Francisco Reyes Cc: mwm-dated-1044121467.43bfa2@mired.org, questions@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Re: Which files and directories to backup? Message-Id: <20030128173947.46630490.bsdbrett@optushome.com.au> In-Reply-To: <20030127132927.F32694-100000@zoraida.natserv.net> References: <15925.28666.766856.386331@guru.mired.org> <20030127132927.F32694-100000@zoraida.natserv.net> X-Mailer: Sylpheed version 0.8.8 (GTK+ 1.2.10; i386-portbld-freebsd4.7) Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Sender: owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Precedence: bulk List-ID: List-Archive: (Web Archive) List-Help: (List Instructions) List-Subscribe: List-Unsubscribe: X-Loop: FreeBSD.ORG Hi, The best way that I've found to back my machine's configs up, is to create a directory such as /etc/config , *move* all my important configuration files to it (firewall, syslogd, rc.conf etc - basically anything i'd want to keep for a new machine), and then symlink them to their proper locations. That way, if it comes time for a backup, all you do is tar and zip that one /etc/config directory, and move it somewhere safe. No need to remember every single configuration file that you've ever modified, and you also don't risk messing the system up by extracting the entire /etc directory over a fresh install. Because its so simple too, you're more likely to do more regular backups :) Hope that helps, it's saved my ass many times. regards Brett Harris bmh.youth-it.com To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-questions" in the body of the message