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Date: Tue, 18 Jan 2005 01:20:50 +0000
From: Daniel Bye <freebsd-questions@slightlystrange.org>
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Subject: Re: purpose of /var/backups
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On Mon, Jan 17, 2005 at 04:04:52PM -0600, Doug Poland wrote:
> Hello,
>=20
> On my 5.3-STABLE systems I have a directory in /var called backups.  A
> view of man hier says:=20
>=20
>    backups/   miscellaneous backup files
>=20
> with files like:
>=20
>   aliases.bak
>   aliases.bak2
>   group.bak
>   group.bak2
>   master.passwd.bak
>   master.passwd.bak2
>=20
> I'm curious, what process are writing these files to this directory?

periodic daily is at work here.

--->$ find /etc/periodic -name '*backup*'
/etc/periodic/daily/200.backup-passwd
/etc/periodic/daily/210.backup-aliases

> Does something depend on these files existing?

Potentially, your ability to recover your system should any of the files
backed up become corrupted or compromised.

Dan

--=20
Daniel Bye

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