[Sussex] back ups and stuff like that ?

[Steve Dobson]

John

On Sat, Aug 27, 2005 at 05:59:41PM +0100, John D. wrote:
> Advice/suggestion about back up methods please.
> 
> Why? because during the finalisation of my gentoo install (updates etc), 
> the system had dragged in a new kernel version.
> 
> Upgrading to the newer version has never been a problem before, but this 
> time it was i.e. I did the upgrade according to the gentoo docs, but 
> when it came to rebooting into the new kernel, it didn't want to start 
> X, wouldn't start kde, etc etc. I did get into graphic mode once, but 
> only into twm - which I have no real understanding/experience of.
> 
> I managed to sort the problem, by just recompiling (I think thats what 
> it's called) the kernel again. Which then let me into X/KDE.
> 
> The only real snag then turned out to be with Firefox and Thunderbird. 
> It wouldn't let me start either as "the current profiles are in use". I
> don't follow what that means or it's ramifications properly. What I do 
> know it that it's wiped out my address book in thunderbird and it was a 
> major hassle getting to my customisations and bookmarks for Firefox.

The "the current profiles are in use" means that Firefox/Thunderbird
think that there is another instance of Firefox/Thunderbird running on
your system.  Every time I've seen it it is because there *was* another
Firefox running (I don't use Thunderbird).

If you see that again then type (as root):
   # ps -ef | head -1 && ps -ef | grep firefox
   UID        PID  PPID  C STIME TTY          TIME CMD
   steve     4663     1  0 Aug26 ?        00:08:21 firefox-bin -a firefox
   steve    11635 11629  0 18:19 pts/6    00:00:00 grep firefox

(or ps -ef | head -1 && ps -ef | grep thunderbird)

and then use kill to kill off the running firefox execuables by process
ID (pid):

   # kill 4663

Of course I run debian and process names my differ.

> Sure, I appreciate that backups are normally done by those who are 
> "smarter than the average bear", but I've never really had any data 
> thats important enough, so that it needs to be protected in such a way.
> 
> So is it feasible to be able to back up address books, bookmarks etc 
> just as seperate files. Which can then be kept away from the 
> applications (so I can import them back later should anything "play up" 
> in a similar fashion to my earlier description ??? Or would I have to 
> keep more than just that ???

Firefox (and I assum thunderbird) stores local stuff (like bookmark files)
under the file <home-dir>/.mozilla/ so look there.

On Linux any file starting with a period (.) are hidden.  You need to use
"ls -a" to list hidden files.
 
> I don't think that I need to burn it to cdrw/dvdrw or anything quite 
> that extensive, though advice may suggest otherwise.
> 
> So what direction should I go, that is sensible for "just a home user" ??

Create a top level directory call backups:

   $ mkdir ~/backups

and then backup to there:

   $ tar cvf ~/backups/`date "+mozzila-%Y-%m-%d.tar"` \
     -C ~ --exclude \*Cache\* .mozilla/

The "\" only allows me to break the line.  If you type it all on one line
then omitt the "\".

If you then change directory into backups and list the directory's contents:

   $ cd ~/backups
   $ ls

you should see the backup file with todays date.

If you want to restore:

  $ cd ~/backups
  $ tar xvf mozzilla-<date>.tar -C ~

Steve
-- 
BOFH excuse #375:

Root name servers corrupted.
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: not available
Type: application/pgp-signature
Size: 189 bytes
Desc: Digital signature
Url : http://mailman.lug.org.uk/pipermail/sussex/attachments/20050827/9ba4b974/attachment.pgp