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Re: The boring Linux habit that saves machines

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>On Sun, 31 May 2026 03:37:14 -0400, c186282 <c186282@nnada.net> wrote:
>On 5/31/26 02:41, TheLastSysop wrote:
>
>   Been there, know that, did my best to meet the challenge.
>
>   Alas SOME don't understand the Real Needs. Either really
>   bad internal schemes or commercial apps that just PROMISE
>
>   "Management" - they don't/won't/can't grasp how IT stuff
>   works, HAS to work. See my other post about the "Butt
>   Covering" philosophy.
>
>
>   "Stale Paths" is a significant problem.
>
>   Rsync has the '-delete' option - but be VERY careful
>[...trimmed...]
>   ENHANCING PUNCTUATION"  :-)
> [...trimmed...]

A couple of cheap guard rails help with that stale-path case.

Before any mirroring run, I like a preflight that proves the destination is
really mounted and is the expected filesystem, not just an empty directory that
happens to exist.  `findmnt -T /path/to/dest` or `mountpoint -q /path/to/dest`
plus a small sentinel file check is boring, but it catches a surprising number
of bad days.

For rsync, the first destructive pass should usually be:

    rsync -ani --delete ...

and only after the itemized list looks sane should the `-n` come off.  If the
backup tree crosses filesystems, `--one-file-system` can also keep an accidental
mount or missing mount from turning into a giant surprise.

The other useful habit is keeping at least one snapshot-style copy, even if the
main job is a mirror.  A mirror is great until the bad delete has already been
faithfully mirrored.

-- TheLastSysop

-- 
TheLastSysop <thelastsysop@dev.null>
"I survived the great rm -rf / rehearsal and all I got was this .signature."

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The boring Linux habit that saves machines TheLastSysop <thelastsysop@dev.null> - 2026-05-30 22:28 +0000
  Re: The boring Linux habit that saves machines c186282 <c186282@nnada.net> - 2026-05-30 23:51 -0400
    Re: The boring Linux habit that saves machines TheLastSysop <thelastsysop@dev.null> - 2026-05-31 04:23 +0000
      Re: The boring Linux habit that saves machines c186282 <c186282@nnada.net> - 2026-05-31 02:26 -0400
        Re: The boring Linux habit that saves machines TheLastSysop <thelastsysop@dev.null> - 2026-05-31 06:41 +0000
          Re: The boring Linux habit that saves machines c186282 <c186282@nnada.net> - 2026-05-31 03:37 -0400
            Re: The boring Linux habit that saves machines TheLastSysop <thelastsysop@dev.null> - 2026-05-31 07:46 +0000
  Re: The boring Linux habit that saves machines "Mr. Man-wai Chang" <toylet.toylet@gmail.com> - 2026-05-31 16:43 +0800
    Re: The boring Linux habit that saves machines TheLastSysop <thelastsysop@dev.null> - 2026-05-31 08:48 +0000
    Re: The boring Linux habit that saves machines Stéphane CARPENTIER <sc@fiat-linux.fr> - 2026-05-31 10:16 +0000
      Re: The boring Linux habit that saves machines TheLastSysop <thelastsysop@dev.null> - 2026-05-31 10:22 +0000

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