[ILUG] Backing up debian

[Colm MacCarthaigh]

On Sun, Jun 05, 2005 at 02:30:32PM -0700, Mark Campbell wrote:
> On Sat, Jun 04, 2005 at 06:40:11PM +0100, Colin O'Keeffe stated: 
> > Is there a way to backup important debian files like X settings and
> > kernel image incase I break something ?
> 
> Not particularly referenceing to Debian but in general I'll only backup
> /usr/local, /usr/home and /var/spool.  The files in /etc are generally very
> easy to rebuild (such as IP info init scripts etc), anything that can't be
> rebuilt quickly tends to reside in /usr/local/etc.

Unless you've installed things from source or some-other non-dpkg means,
nothing will be in /usr/local/. /etc/ contains the configurations for
essentially everything on the system, you'd be insane not to back it up.

Incidentally, the Debian package "cruft" is great for identifying files
which don't belong to any package, very useful when running backups.

> > Also , where is the package list stored on a machine or does it fetch
> > it from the server ?
> 
> Specific to Debian I believe this is /var/cache/apt

Why do you people keep thinking this? It's /var/lib/dpkg/available

-- 
Colm MacCárthaigh                        Public Key: colm+pgp at stdlib.net