Backup package requirements
This is subject to discussion, preferably before I start coding.
The backup package must be able to:
o) preserve enough information about a system to be able to re-
create it on replacement hardware.
o) be painless enough to use that it gets used on a regular basis,
even by those of us who have limited time and/or are champion
procrastinators. :-) This implies the whole basis for creating
a special Debian backup mechanism, which is to not backup the
data contained within Debian packages. This also implies that
we must be able to make incremental backups.
o) work reasonably with minimal hardware. (such as a floppy drive)
o) take advantage of better hardware. (such as a tape drive or
removable hard disk cartridges for unique data or NFS-mounted
partitions or CD-ROMs containing Debian packages)
o) re-install a system with minimal fuss. In particular, I am
resistant to the idea that the base system must be installed
first. I would like to be able to boot the system to the point
where it is running off of a RAM-disk (hopefully with only two?
floppies) and be able to install the appropriate Debian packages
from a NFS-mounted partition or a CD-ROM drive and the unique
data from the appropriate peripheral.
o) recover intelligently from the case where the correct version of
a package (or worse, any version) is not available. (It seems
that the order of package installations and removals is important.
Perhaps dpkg could maintain a log in addition to the status file,
which would list the packages installed in their correct order?
-- Ian J., don't run out and implement this yet, I'm sure we need
to discuss it further.)
o) recognize remote and CD-ROM file systems, so as not to back them
up. We must be able to optionally turn this feature off, so as
to allow for a Debian system to be able to take on the job of
backing up a network.
--
David H. Silber dhs@firefly.com Project: Debian GNU/Linux (uucp)
<http://www.access.digex.net/~dhs/> Wanted: Spare time.
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