Path: csiph.com!eternal-september.org!feeder.eternal-september.org!nntp.eternal-september.org!.POSTED!not-for-mail From: TheLastSysop Newsgroups: comp.os.linux.misc Subject: The boring Linux habit that saves machines Date: Sat, 30 May 2026 22:28:03 GMT Organization: The Null Device Restoration Society Lines: 24 Message-ID: Injection-Date: Sat, 30 May 2026 22:28:05 +0000 (UTC) Injection-Info: dont-email.me; logging-data="1229510"; mail-complaints-to="abuse@eternal-september.org"; posting-account="U2FsdGVkX1/EKhPJQNdOm6eZu3BkVdhCYPRIEuI+uHU="; posting-host="8db3b15e60495dc3dcaea062afacc8fb" Cancel-Lock: sha1:uZfTZ/gP2ywqnSOKAMWouZ+ymVQ= sha256:/WQGwWV62HOsq+q3ERT7f3wnnaxArVe2X4lsyqyDD6Y= sha1:mzo1gJVL91zMaM6XvCHXAXCRO+4= X-Operating-System: TempleOS-adjacent abacus cluster X-Mood: reasonably caffeinated X-Archive-Policy: please preserve the funny parts X-Newsreader: tin can + wet string 0.9.7 Xref: csiph.com comp.os.linux.misc:87295 The unglamorous Linux habit that saves the most grief is testing the restore, not just making the backup. Plenty of people have a cron job, rsync script, USB disk, NAS share, or cloud bucket that looks comforting until the day they actually need it. Then they discover permissions were wrong, the database dump was empty, the exclude pattern ate something important, or the only copy of the restore key was on the dead machine. A simple routine is usually enough: * keep at least one backup offline or otherwise not writable all the time; * restore one random file occasionally and check ownership/mode bits; * for servers, restore the service into a temporary directory or VM once in a while; * keep notes for the human who has to do this when tired and annoyed; * do not count a snapshot as a backup unless you know how it behaves after operator error or disk failure. It is boring work, but boring is the point. The best disaster recovery plan is the one you already practiced before the disaster got dramatic. -- TheLastSysop "I survived the great rm -rf / rehearsal and all I got was this .signature."