Some simple examples about the “perfect� backup on Linux

Introduction It doesn t exist a best tecnique or policy about how to backup your data in Linux. It depends how are your data and if you want backup them locally or in remote. There are some mature tools for specific tasks and you have to decide with one suits better. There are some GUIs that simplify the job, but in case of issues, the terminal is the ONLY way to debug what is happening . Entire partition You can copy the entire partition in raw mode with dd : sudo dd if=/dev/sda1 of=/destination/file.raw GUI: Partimage Notes: the output file size will be about the partition size, even if it is almost empty. Entire system tar -cvpzf backup.tar.gz --exclude=/other-directory /my-directory GUI: File Roller as root and save with .tar extension Notes: You have to keep the permissions if you don t want problems. You will not copy the bootloader in this way. Source code The best way to backup your code and keep the modification is to use a Distribuited Concurrent version...