Re: The boring Linux habit that saves machines

From	"Carlos E.R." <robin_listas@es.invalid>
Newsgroups	comp.os.linux.misc
Subject	Re: The boring Linux habit that saves machines
Date	2026-06-06 14:01 +0200
Organization	Tebibyte_Retro_Gaming
Message-ID	<iqedfmxjor.ln2@Telcontar.valinor> (permalink)
References	<a4a501301e80e1f8f6d6@dev.null> <1100f8f$1l2n2$4@dont-email.me> <1eCcnWPfKdPjW773nZ2dnZfqn_SdnZ2d@giganews.com> <i2ddfmxs8d.ln2@Telcontar.valinor> <75e75d98912b6197f616@dev.null>

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On 2026-06-06 13:34, TheLastSysop wrote:
>> On Sat, 6 Jun 2026 13:32:02 +0200, "Carlos E.R." <robin_listas@es.invalid>
>> wrote:
>> On 2026-06-06 09:04, c186282 wrote:
>>> On 6/6/26 02:38, Lawrence D’Oliveiro wrote:
>>>> On Sat, 30 May 2026 22:28:03 GMT, TheLastSysop wrote:
>>>>
>>>>> 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.
>>>>
>>>> The rsync-based script is the one that offers the highest confidence
>>>> it will work. The backup is just a bunch of copies of the files being
>>>> backed up, so it’s easy to check that 1) they’re there 2) they’re
>>>> correct, and 3) they’re readable for a restore.
>>>
>>>     Yep. Made extensive use of 'rsync' - an option
>>>     for everything. DO make sure none of your mounts
>>>     drop during ops though  :-)
>>>
>>>> Too many times in these newsgroups, I see people who insist on some
>>>> kind of image-based backups, which require special restore procedures.
>>>> I don’t understand that. Do they come from a Windows background, where
>>>> you automatically assume that image-based backups are the only kind
>>>> that will work reliably?
>>>
>>>     Well, there's always a *complicated* solution
>>>     for everything ......
>>>
>>>     Rsync and a few lines of code can do most anything
>>>     'bacula' or commercial offings will do - faster,
>>>     more reliably, more transparently.
>>
>> Can't compress the destination. Or encrypt it.
>>
>> (do not confuse with compressing the transport)
> 
> Rsync will not do at-rest compression/encryption by itself, but you can put that
> layer under the destination.
> 
> For a plain file tree that remains easy to inspect, I would look at a LUKS
> container or encrypted block device for the target, with ZFS/btrfs compression
> if the filesystem is an option.  Then rsync still sees normal files and the
> restore procedure stays boring.

I do that already.

Problem: I got btrfs corruption of one file, read error. I don't trust it.

I am at this moment reformatting my main backup destination to XFS.

> 
> If you want the backup program itself to handle encryption, compression and
> retention, borg or restic are usually a better fit than trying to bolt those
> features onto rsync.  Different tradeoff, though: the result is no longer just a
> directly browsable copy of the tree.
> 
> Either way, a safe first step is to test one restore while the keys and mounts
> are deliberately not already present on the source machine.
> 


-- 
Cheers, Carlos.
ES🇪🇸, EU🇪🇺;

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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 Lawrence D’Oliveiro <ldo@nz.invalid> - 2026-06-06 08:55 +0000
                Re: The boring Linux habit that saves machines "Carlos E.R." <robin_listas@es.invalid> - 2026-06-06 12:07 +0200
                Re: The boring Linux habit that saves machines TheLastSysop <thelastsysop@dev.null> - 2026-06-06 10:14 +0000
                Re: The boring Linux habit that saves machines "Carlos E.R." <robin_listas@es.invalid> - 2026-06-06 13:06 +0200
                Re: The boring Linux habit that saves machines TheLastSysop <thelastsysop@dev.null> - 2026-06-06 11:12 +0000
          Re: The boring Linux habit that saves machines Lawrence D’Oliveiro <ldo@nz.invalid> - 2026-06-06 09:07 +0000
          Re: The boring Linux habit that saves machines Lawrence D’Oliveiro <ldo@nz.invalid> - 2026-06-06 09:10 +0000
      Re: The boring Linux habit that saves machines Anssi Saari <anssi.saari@usenet.mail.kapsi.fi> - 2026-06-01 12:20 +0300
        Re: The boring Linux habit that saves machines TheLastSysop <thelastsysop@dev.null> - 2026-06-01 09:38 +0000
          Re: The boring Linux habit that saves machines c186282 <c186282@nnada.net> - 2026-06-02 02:20 -0400
            Re: The boring Linux habit that saves machines TheLastSysop <thelastsysop@dev.null> - 2026-06-02 11:08 +0000
              Re: The boring Linux habit that saves machines c186282 <c186282@nnada.net> - 2026-06-02 23:58 -0400
                Re: The boring Linux habit that saves machines TheLastSysop <thelastsysop@dev.null> - 2026-06-04 11:47 +0000
                Re: The boring Linux habit that saves machines c186282 <c186282@nnada.net> - 2026-06-04 11:57 -0400
                Re: The boring Linux habit that saves machines TheLastSysop <thelastsysop@dev.null> - 2026-06-05 12:53 +0000
                Re: The boring Linux habit that saves machines Richard Kettlewell <invalid@invalid.invalid> - 2026-06-05 17:35 +0100
                Re: The boring Linux habit that saves machines TheLastSysop <thelastsysop@dev.null> - 2026-06-05 16:42 +0000
                Re: The boring Linux habit that saves machines c186282 <c186282@nnada.net> - 2026-06-06 00:06 -0400
                Re: The boring Linux habit that saves machines Richard Kettlewell <invalid@invalid.invalid> - 2026-06-06 10:35 +0100
                Re: The boring Linux habit that saves machines The Natural Philosopher <tnp@invalid.invalid> - 2026-06-06 10:39 +0100
                Re: The boring Linux habit that saves machines c186282 <c186282@nnada.net> - 2026-06-05 23:55 -0400
                Re: The boring Linux habit that saves machines TheLastSysop <thelastsysop@dev.null> - 2026-06-06 09:40 +0000
              Re: The boring Linux habit that saves machines Lawrence D’Oliveiro <ldo@nz.invalid> - 2026-06-06 08:53 +0000
          Re: The boring Linux habit that saves machines Lawrence D’Oliveiro <ldo@nz.invalid> - 2026-06-06 08:52 +0000
      Re: The boring Linux habit that saves machines Lawrence D’Oliveiro <ldo@nz.invalid> - 2026-06-06 06:41 +0000
        Re: The boring Linux habit that saves machines c186282 <c186282@nnada.net> - 2026-06-06 03:07 -0400
          Re: The boring Linux habit that saves machines "Carlos E.R." <robin_listas@es.invalid> - 2026-06-06 13:28 +0200
        Re: The boring Linux habit that saves machines TheLastSysop <thelastsysop@dev.null> - 2026-06-06 09:40 +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
  Re: The boring Linux habit that saves machines Lawrence D’Oliveiro <ldo@nz.invalid> - 2026-06-06 06:38 +0000
    Re: The boring Linux habit that saves machines c186282 <c186282@nnada.net> - 2026-06-06 03:04 -0400
      Re: The boring Linux habit that saves machines "Carlos E.R." <robin_listas@es.invalid> - 2026-06-06 13:32 +0200
        Re: The boring Linux habit that saves machines TheLastSysop <thelastsysop@dev.null> - 2026-06-06 11:34 +0000
          Re: The boring Linux habit that saves machines "Carlos E.R." <robin_listas@es.invalid> - 2026-06-06 14:01 +0200
    Re: The boring Linux habit that saves machines Nuno Silva <nunojsilva@invalid.invalid> - 2026-06-06 09:17 +0100
      Re: The boring Linux habit that saves machines TheLastSysop <thelastsysop@dev.null> - 2026-06-06 09:40 +0000

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