[tlug] Back up files permissions, groups, owners

[Dave M G <dave@example.com>]

TLUG,

A little while after my last crash, I vowed I would not lose data again. 
One of the things I did was buy an external USB hard disk (500 GB, same 
size as the internal HD).

After looking around at various methods of backup, I settled on a Gnome 
utility called "Grsync", which, if I understand correctly, is just a 
nice pretty interface for the command line "rsync".

I copy the entire contents of my home directory to the external drive 
daily (I keep system files in a different partition).

Everything seems to work fine. But there are some options that I wonder 
if I should take more care with, particularly with permissions.

In the "Basic Options" tab of the Grsync interface, it gives me the 
option to "Preserve time", "Preserve owner", "Preserve permissions", and 
"Preserve group". Right now, only "Preserve time" is turned on.

My experience with permissions is that they can really bite if not 
handled correctly.

Basically, if my computer explodes and I'm restoring from my backup 
drive, I just want to be able to copy all the contents into my home 
directory and roll with it.

Should I preserve owner, permissions, and/or group settings on the file? 
Is it fine the way it is? Is this not an issue I need to think about?

Enquiring minds want to know.

Thanks for any advice.


--
Dave M G
http://tlug.jp/mediawiki/index.php?title=User:Dave_M_G