backup systems. (Use Amanda!!)

[warlord at MIT.EDU (Derek Atkins)]

Derek Martin <blu at sophic.org> writes:

> On Fri, Apr 11, 2003 at 04:04:37PM -0400, Derek Atkins wrote:
> > > If it came from Red Hat's RPMs, it's got a SRPM.  If there's no SRPM,
> > > don't install it in /usr.
> > 
> > Not all RPMS come from Red Hat, and not all RPMS are relocatable.
> > I've got a bunch of RPMS that I use that do not have associated SRPMS
> > but are also not relocatable.  They are part of Linux-Athena, and get
> > updates as part of the Linux-Athena update process (along with the Red
> > Hat RPMS).
> 
> If you fixed a bug and re-built the software, as you said you did,
> then you've obviously got the source.  You can:

The bug wasn't in the compiled sources -- it was in some ancillary
scripting (as I've said a couple of times).  I did not have the
complete package sources.

>  - build a source RPM yourself (you're already building the software
>    yourself, so building SRPMs isn't much additional effort)
>  - don't install it as an RPM, install it from source
> 
> The mere existence of the RPMs indicates that SOMEONE already has a
> spec file.  If it's not included with the sources, you can probably
> ask whoever distributes the RPMs for a copy of it.  Then, building
> your own SRPMS should be trivial.

TMO.  Easier to file the bug report with the script patch and wait
for an update.

> I may be alone in this, but you seem to me to be going to a tremendous
> amount of trouble to make it appear that a normal, reasonable back-up
> scheme, which simply excludes the directories where distro files
> live, doesn't meet your needs, when by all appearances it does,
> practically speaking.  You may need to make minor adjustments to the
> way you think about administering your systems, but that's a lot less
> work than engineering your own back-up system from scratch.  But if
> you're hell-bent on doing that, then I say go for it.  No doubt lots
> of other people would find it useful.  I might even use it myself.  It
> just seems like a lot of work, for insubstantal practical benefit, to
> me.

I have no guarantee that there are no non-distro files in some
of those locations.  I don't think it unreasonable to ask a backup
system not to back up the original OS installation.

-derek

-- 
       Derek Atkins, SB '93 MIT EE, SM '95 MIT Media Laboratory
       Member, MIT Student Information Processing Board  (SIPB)
       URL: http://web.mit.edu/warlord/    PP-ASEL-IA     N1NWH
       warlord at MIT.EDU                        PGP key available