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The 03.05.29 at 10:09, John Pettigrew wrote:
It backups every file included on the rpms that has been modified, by default, and optionally, all those files not included on any rpm. There is not much sense in saving everything that came on the CDs... and it saves a lot of space.
Yes, but (by the sound of it) it doesn't back up things installed by another route, all files in /home etc.
As a matter of fact, it does backup everything - that is, everything that was not distributed by suse, or that has been modified. Everything in /home/*, for example, is saved. But, for example, /bin/rpm is not, because you get it from the CD. It is not the default, but halfways it directly asks you if you want to backup everything... Mmmm... I have the doubt now about patches.
It just sounds a little unsafe to me compared to an rsync of the complete disc. OK, that takes a lot of space, but if that brings peace of mind then it's worth it.
Of course, it is more straight forward, and safer. As a matter of fact, I would prefer the way Ghost does it, partition data, format, everything. But that is a comercial program, and does not suppoert reiserfs, as far as I know.
A hint to SuSE - document your backup tool!
As a matter of fact, it is documented O:-) http://localhost/usr/share/doc/packages/suselinux-userguide_en/html/node8.ht... Creating a System Backup ------------------------ The YaST2 backup module enables you to create a backup of your system. The backup created by the module does not comprise the entire system, but only saves information about changed packages and copies of critical storage areas and configuration files. Define the kind of data to save in the backup. By default, the backup includes information about any packages changed since the last installation run. In addition, it may include data that does not belong to packages themselves, such as many of the configuration files in /etc or in the directories under /home. Apart from that, the backup can include important storage areas on your hard disk that may be crucial when trying to restore a system, such as the partition table or the master boot record (MBR). But that's all it says - well, no, there is another paragraph under "restore" - but that is too litle. -- Cheers, Carlos Robinson