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From: Oliver Iberien <oliver-mailinglist@charter.net>
To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org
Date: Sun, 16 Apr 2006 09:08:56 -0700
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Cc: Andy Reitz <ajr9@po.cwru.edu>, Glenn Dawson <glenn@antimatter.net>
Subject: Re: Newbie question -- which files to back up?
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On Sunday 16 April 2006 09:00, Glenn Dawson wrote:
> At 09:58 PM 2/22/2006, Andy Reitz wrote:
> >Hi Oliver,
> >
> >At a minimum, you will probably want to back up the following directories:
> >
> >         /etc
> >         /usr/local/etc
> >         /home
> >
> >That will get all of the configuration files for FreeBSD and the
> >software thar you installed from ports.
>
> Actually, no.  If you want to backup the software installed from
> ports you will typically need /usr/local.
>
> The contents of /var/db would also be desirable so that you know
> which ports are installed on the machine among other things.
>
> -Glenn
>
> >  The last directory will det all of your user's data. Some other
> > applications might put data in other places, however, so you might
> > want to research the applications that you are running to make sure
> > you don't miss any important data.
> >
> >-Andy.

Thanks for all this information. Can /usr/local and /var/db just be copied 
directly back in after recovery, or (if it's more complicated that that) 
would there be a tutorial on this somewhere?

Oliver