I've been meaning to write this for a while. I wrote up a procecure and I
may have even posted it. I include files indicated by cruft in my backups.
I'm also looking at checking md5sums and atimes to help decide if backups
of files like conf files is neccisary or if they're just the defaults from
the package(s). I use dpkg-repackage (or something like that) to repackage
packages that aren't in the archive anymore so I can back them up in a
more friendly way. If you need any help with debbackup, please let me
know.
I was also hoping to have a nice front end with the ability to veto or
include backing up things... Since I do most of it manualy this hasn't
been a problem. It'd be nice if debbackup would suggest some good backends
to store the backups incrementaly, on special media (CD's...)... I'd also
like to plug ppmd as probably the "best" compression available (slow, less
tested, but compresses on average much smaller than gzip or bzip2).
The ability to have a "rescue" backup disc that's bootable and could
restore would be ideal.
I have also been thinking about creating a complimentary program that
would help "cleanup" the system by finding unused packages, seldom used
packages, cruft, unnessisary files... As with debbackup, there are things
to do some of the functons already.
Drew Daniels
