threads / discuss / 9943

Repository backups

Subject: Repository backups

## tl;dr

2 messages between Sep 19, 2007 and Sep 19, 2007.

replies: 1people: 2as markdown or json

Jason Sewall· Sep 19, 2007, 15:14 UTC · lore

I'd like to build a modest safety net for my various git repositories in case of catastrophic failure. Currently, everything is backed up on machines in the same building. I'm not expecting the Computer Science building to get hit by terrorists and we're in a seismically stable place, but there *is* construction nearby...

Anyway, my university offers a "mass storage" tape-based service that is supposedly very safe. We are encouraged to give them single big files for backups.

The temptation to just make bundles of all branch heads is great but probably not what I really want - things like reflogs don't get handed off with those, if I understand correctly.

Is there any argument against just making a tar of a bare clone of the repo? Any other ideas? I'm reluctant to actually clone into the tape (SAM-FS, which I know nothing about) because of the number of files it would create and the lack of git tools on the machines with access to this machine.

Thanks, Jason

Johannes Schindelin· Sep 19, 2007, 15:27 UTC · re: Jason Sewall · lore

Re: Repository backups

Hi,

On Wed, 19 Sep 2007, Jason Sewall wrote:

Show 16 quoted lines

> I'd like to build a modest safety net for my various git repositories
> in case of catastrophic failure. Currently, everything is backed up on
> machines in the same building. I'm not expecting the Computer Science
> building to get hit by terrorists and we're in a seismically stable
> place, but there *is* construction nearby...
> 
> Anyway, my university offers a "mass storage" tape-based service that
> is supposedly very safe. We are encouraged to give them single big
> files for backups.
> 
> The temptation to just make bundles of all branch heads is great but
> probably not what I really want - things like reflogs don't get handed
> off with those, if I understand correctly.
> 
> Is there any argument against just making a tar of a bare clone of the
> repo?

If you make a bare clone, you lose reflogs, too.

So I would backup the complete .git/ directory instead.

Hth, Dscho