{"thread":{"id":"8144","subject":"git as a backup tool?","startedAt":"2007-05-14T11:48:26Z","lastAt":"2007-05-15T05:51:32Z","messageCount":4,"participants":["Geert Uytterhoeven","Ron Parker","Russell","Peter Baumann"],"isPatch":false,"patchVersion":null,"patchTotal":null},"messages":[{"id":"42106","messageId":"Pine.LNX.4.64.0705141334120.20215@anakin","threadId":"8144","inReplyTo":null,"subject":"git as a backup tool?","fromName":"Geert Uytterhoeven","fromEmail":"geert@linux-m68k.org","sentAt":"2007-05-14T11:48:26Z","receivedAt":"2007-05-14T11:48:26Z","isPatch":false,"sender":{"key":"geert@linux-m68k.org","avatar":"https://gravatar.com/avatar/8105b34f653a7b5b98e225e565b11ebcc762ad4ab1a9d905a4663db029a9e6bc?d=mp&s=160"},"body":"\tHi,\n\nHas anyone considered using git as a backup tool? I.e.\n - put your whole file system in git\n - do `git add .; git commit -a' from cron\n - copy .git to external media once in a while\n - clean up old stuff (unused and older than xx days) from .git\n\nThanks!\n\nGr{oetje,eeting}s,\n\n\t\t\t\t\t\tGeert\n\n--\nGeert Uytterhoeven -- There's lots of Linux beyond ia32 -- geert@linux-m68k.org\n\nIn personal conversations with technical people, I call myself a hacker. But\nwhen I'm talking to journalists I just say \"programmer\" or something like that.\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t -- Linus Torvalds\n"},{"id":"42174","messageId":"769697AE3E25EF4FBC0763CD91AB1B0201D496EA@MBGMail01.mobot.org","threadId":"8144","inReplyTo":"Pine.LNX.4.64.0705141334120.20215@anakin","subject":"RE: git as a backup tool?","fromName":"Ron Parker","fromEmail":"ron.parker@mobot.org","sentAt":"2007-05-14T22:53:15Z","receivedAt":"2007-05-14T22:53:15Z","isPatch":false,"sender":{"key":"ron.parker@mobot.org","avatar":null},"body":"\n> Geert Uytterhoeven wrote:\n\n> Has anyone considered using git as a backup tool? I.e.\n\nAt the very least you would have a lot of chgrp/chown work to do after a\n\"restore\". Git stores file mode, but not ownership information, ACL's\nor extended attributes.\n\nI found this out when I tried using git to backup part of BOINC\ndevelopment server. Various files and directories had to have different\nownership and extended attributes (for SELinux).\n-- \nRon Parker\n"},{"id":"42189","messageId":"c1b8b6670705142209x267e44cbrea26aa8818275aea@mail.gmail.com","threadId":"8144","inReplyTo":"Pine.LNX.4.64.0705141334120.20215@anakin","subject":"Re: git as a backup tool?","fromName":"Russell","fromEmail":"russellsteicke@gmail.com","sentAt":"2007-05-15T05:09:06Z","receivedAt":"2007-05-15T05:09:06Z","isPatch":false,"sender":{"key":"russellsteicke@gmail.com","avatar":null},"body":"On 5/14/07, Geert Uytterhoeven wrote:\n> Hi,\n>\n> Has anyone considered using git as a backup tool? I.e.\n> - put your whole file system in git\n> - do `git add .; git commit -a' from cron\n> - copy .git to external media once in a while\n> - clean up old stuff (unused and older than xx days) from .git\n\nI'm using git to backup my private email, all in Maildir format, in\nthat manner. In addition, I push to a remote bare repository\nautomatically, using ssh host keys.\n\nThe most annoying issue was trying to prevent spam getting stuck in\nthe mail history. I do this by having the \"unsure\" mail folder in a\ndifferent place, and then having a symlink from the mail store point\nthere so mutt can still find it easily if needed.\n\nBacking up a whole home directory would require careful thought about\nwhat _not_ to backup, similar to the spam issue. You probably\nwouldn't want to backup things that you download off the net and can\neasily retrieve again, like foo-1.2.tar.gz etc.\n\nI'm not sure what you mean by cleaning up old stuff. git (or at least\nmy usage of it) requires the whole history to be in the repository. I\nhaven't looked at shallow clones or other ways to prune history.\n\n\n\n-- \nVirus found in this message.\n"},{"id":"42190","messageId":"20070515055132.GC5493@xp.machine.xx","threadId":"8144","inReplyTo":"c1b8b6670705142209x267e44cbrea26aa8818275aea@mail.gmail.com","subject":"Re: git as a backup tool?","fromName":"Peter Baumann","fromEmail":"waste.manager@gmx.de","sentAt":"2007-05-15T05:51:32Z","receivedAt":"2007-05-15T05:51:32Z","isPatch":false,"sender":{"key":"waste.manager@gmx.de","avatar":null},"body":"On Tue, May 15, 2007 at 01:09:06PM +0800, Russell wrote:\n> On 5/14/07, Geert Uytterhoeven wrote:\n> > Hi,\n> >\n> > Has anyone considered using git as a backup tool? I.e.\n> > - put your whole file system in git\n> > - do `git add .; git commit -a' from cron\n> > - copy .git to external media once in a while\n> > - clean up old stuff (unused and older than xx days) from .git\n> \n> I'm using git to backup my private email, all in Maildir format, in\n> that manner. In addition, I push to a remote bare repository\n> automatically, using ssh host keys.\n> \n> The most annoying issue was trying to prevent spam getting stuck in\n> the mail history. I do this by having the \"unsure\" mail folder in a\n> different place, and then having a symlink from the mail store point\n> there so mutt can still find it easily if needed.\n> \n> Backing up a whole home directory would require careful thought about\n> what _not_ to backup, similar to the spam issue. You probably\n> wouldn't want to backup things that you download off the net and can\n> easily retrieve again, like foo-1.2.tar.gz etc.\n> \n> I'm not sure what you mean by cleaning up old stuff. git (or at least\n> my usage of it) requires the whole history to be in the repository. I\n> haven't looked at shallow clones or other ways to prune history.\n> \n\nThere was already a discussion about using git for backup in [1], which\nis probabily worth reading. For cleaning up old history Junio explained a\nvery elegant solution in [2].\n\n-Peter\n\n\n[1]: http://thread.gmane.org/gmane.comp.version-control.git/33887\n[2]: http://article.gmane.org/gmane.comp.version-control.git/34455\n"}]}