Q4OS Forum

Tolkem

Member

Registered: 2019-10-06

Posts: 487

Backing up Q4OS; what to or not to exclude.

Hi everyone! Hope you're all having a nce life!

I'd like you people to give some advices regarding backing up Q4OS. What is it safe to exclude and what should not be excluded. I've read quite a few post and tutorials but still a bit confused, for example, this is what I got in luckybackup

rsync -h --progress --stats -r -tgo -p -l -D -H --numeric-ids --update --exclude=**/*tmp*/ --exclude=**/*cache*/ --exclude=**/*Cache*/ --exclude=**~ --exclude=/mnt/*/** --exclude=/media/*/** --exclude=**/lost+found*/ --exclude=/var/run/** --exclude=/run/** --exclude=/proc/** --exclude=/dev/** --exclude=/sys/** --exclude=**/*Trash*/ --exclude=**/*trash*/ --exclude=**/.gvfs/ --exclude=/home/moltke/.cachekde/thumbnails/ --exclude=/home/moltke/.cachekde/chromium/ --exclude=/home/moltke/.moonchild productions/ --exclude=/home/moltke/.mozilla/ --exclude=/home/moltke/palemoon/ --exclude=/var/cache/apt/archives/ --exclude=/var/spool/ --exclude=/var/tmp/ / /media/moltke/Backup/

Does that look good to you? What else would you include/exclude from or in that?

Thanks in advance for your answers.

bin

Member

From: U.K.

Registered: 2016-01-28

Posts: 1,333

Re: Backing up Q4OS; what to or not to exclude.

The only things that leap out are the .moonchild - Palemoon and .mozilla exclusions.

I use firefox-esr which still allows you to re-use your own local record rather than having to have a mozilla account. I think Palemoon is the same but don't use it any more so cannot be sure.

Your /home/moltke/.cache may contain some useful stuff. If you run WINE and have use winetricks then the files it downloaded will be in there.

Tolkem

Member

Registered: 2019-10-06

Posts: 487

Re: Backing up Q4OS; what to or not to exclude.

The only things that leap out are the .moonchild - Palemoon and .mozilla exclusions.

I use firefox-esr which still allows you to re-use your own local record rather than having to have a mozilla account. I think Palemoon is the same but don't use it any more so cannot be sure.

Your /home/moltke/.cache may contain some useful stuff. If you run WINE and have use winetricks then the files it downloaded will be in there.

Thanks for taking the time to answer. I have palemoon "just in case" chromium doesn't work so I don't really use it that much. I don't use wine so guess it's ok, besides, I've backed up home separately, just in case . Like I said, I've read quite a few posts, tutorials and the likes on this "backup the entire system thing" but am still a bit confused. I didn't mention before but I'd like to be able to restore the whole system with it; installed programs, customization, etc, etc. Also, I'd like to keep it as small as possible by leaving out stuff not needed, for instance, I've read backing up /boot is optional as well as /usr but it seems to me those are quite important for what I want to achieve, aren't they? I guess some stuff/files/folders from /usr might be excluded but not sure which ones ... yet.

bin

Member

From: U.K.

Registered: 2016-01-28

Posts: 1,333

Re: Backing up Q4OS; what to or not to exclude.

When it comes to backup the simple answer is - well it isn't. It all depends on what you want or need.

Outside /home there are a handful of files I need to preserve - so I keep copies in my /home. Anything in /usr that I may need will have been copied there from /home as it will be themes and fonts. Likewise a couple of bits in /etc and the apt-x.timer files that allow unattended upgrades to work for /lib

Having installed and reinstalled systems so many times I have a couple of text files with scripts to run after a new installation to install stuff and that's that.

Home can be split into 2 - actual stuff and config/settings in dot files. Grsync will take care of all this and I just avoid backing up stuff I know will be regenerated on a new install.