Backup, what system files are *really* important?

[Mike McCarty]

Patrick O'Callaghan wrote:
> On Thu, 2010-03-11 at 18:29 -0600, Mike McCarty wrote:
>> Patrick O'Callaghan wrote:
>>> I back up all of /etc and /usr/local. Also /opt if it exists.
>> Is /opt really likely to contain some configuration information
>> that a reinstall wouldn't set up? ISTM that, if the system
>> is "modern" enough to use /opt for its install, then its config
>> would also be in /var. Not so?
> 
> /opt (and /usr/local) are likely to contain stuff that wasn't installed
> via rpm or yum, thus needs to be preserved. That's all. YMMV.

Ok, that corresponds to my thinking. So, anything in /opt either
isn't part of the *system* backup but part of the *data only*
backup, and doesn't configure the system, or if Fedora decides
to start putting some stuff in there, then I think the config
would go into /var.

That's why I listed /opt as "not necessary" for a *system only*
backup. I would put it on *data only* backups, as defined by
the OP, since it shouldn't contain any configuration data used
by the OS, as opposed to later installed stuff not necessary for
boot, mounting NFS, DHCP, SELinux setup, etc.

Mike
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