From owner-freebsd-stable@FreeBSD.ORG Sun Sep 8 18:52:46 2013 Return-Path: Delivered-To: freebsd-stable@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.freebsd.org (mx1.freebsd.org [8.8.178.115]) (using TLSv1 with cipher ADH-AES256-SHA (256/256 bits)) (No client certificate requested) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 79498A12 for ; Sun, 8 Sep 2013 18:52:46 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from dmagda@ee.ryerson.ca) Received: from eccles.ee.ryerson.ca (eccles.ee.ryerson.ca [141.117.1.2]) (using TLSv1 with cipher DHE-RSA-AES256-SHA (256/256 bits)) (No client certificate requested) by mx1.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTPS id 3D6B92B68 for ; Sun, 8 Sep 2013 18:52:45 +0000 (UTC) Received: from [172.16.2.5] (108-161-115-55.dsl.teksavvy.com [108.161.115.55] (may be forged)) (authenticated bits=0) by eccles.ee.ryerson.ca (8.14.4/8.14.4) with ESMTP id r88INgPq064397 (version=TLSv1/SSLv3 cipher=AES128-SHA bits=128 verify=NO) for ; Sun, 8 Sep 2013 14:23:42 -0400 (EDT) (envelope-from dmagda@ee.ryerson.ca) Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Mime-Version: 1.0 (Mac OS X Mail 6.5 \(1508\)) Subject: system backups (was: Package database) From: David Magda In-Reply-To: Date: Sun, 8 Sep 2013 14:23:53 -0400 Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable Message-Id: <766C432A-E956-40C4-BA9B-4A3B938A3074@ee.ryerson.ca> References: To: freebsd-stable@freebsd.org X-Mailer: Apple Mail (2.1508) X-BeenThere: freebsd-stable@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.14 Precedence: list List-Id: Production branch of FreeBSD source code List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Sun, 08 Sep 2013 18:52:46 -0000 On Sep 6, 2013, at 12:23, Jim Ballantine wrote: > The backup in /var/backups was a copy of the current DB, so it was not > usable, however there was/is and older backup that was not corrupt. = So I restored > it into /var/db and then update that one. Which is nice reminder to everyone about the importance that fact that a = "proper" backup is a coherent copy of data on independent media. Ideally = one would coherent copies going back in time over various periods in = case earlier ones are corrupted. It's good that this worked out for the OP, but this raises a question in = my mind (as someone who works in IT): what things on FreeBSD are = considered "system files" that need to be regularly backed up? The simplest thing is to just backup all the files on every system, but = are there more critical files. Most people would include /etc and = user/personal data (e.g., /home) as important, but as we've learned in = this thread, there are other files that are important for a properly = working system. Is backing up all /var on the "critical" list? Only = /var/db or /var/backups?