What should be backed up?

[Erik Norgaard]

Jeffrey Goldberg wrote:

> This is one of the several reasons that I use rsync (via rsnapshot).   
> At each increment, it backs up the minimum that is need.  With the  
> cost of having a complete backup which duplicates what you would find  
> in a reinstall, you have a complete system.

For binaries, I find it much safer/easier to reinstall, then you're sure 
all dependencies are installed correctly as well as the pkg database is 
updated correctly.

For the rest of the files, having a complete backup I'll have to trace 
through what differs from the distributed/default configuration etc. 
Doing that from the start is much easier. And, the default configuration 
comes with the source, so no need to backup that.

Of course this is also because when the recovery stragety is to 
reinstall, I'll likely upgrade while at it. So I can't assume blindly 
old default configuration files will work without modifications.

BR, Erik
-- 
Erik Nørgaard
Ph: +34.666334818/+34.915211157                  http://www.locolomo.org