Re: [tlug] Help with Mint

[Raymond Wan <rwan.kyoto@example.com>]

Hi Thomas,


On Fri, Jun 26, 2015 at 5:20 PM, Thomas Blasejewicz <nyuwa@example.com> wrote:
> I am NOT a Windows fan (should be clear by now). BUT, Windows has this
> little trick, where you can return the machine to a point in time,
> you know it was working properly. For example the day before, or a week
> earlier.
> You may loose everything you set up in that period of time, but that is
> still much easier and less painful than doing everything from scratch
> again ...
>
> Does Linux has this kind of trick?
> If so, I would love to learn it.


Not that I know.  But "rsnapshot" comes close.  [http://rsnapshot.org/]

It can take "snapshots" of a directory and copy it somewhere and do
that at regular intervals (based on the cronjob(s) that you set) and
keep as many monthly, weekly, daily, etc. backups that you want,
cycling old ones out.  On top of that, it doesn't make a copy but uses
hard links and rsync so that no additional disk space is used if the
file hasn't been changed.

All sounds good and I do use it, but you cannot return the system to
an earlier time at the push of a button.  Maybe if you set it to take
a snapshot of everything under /...  I've never thought of using it
that way and just use it to take snapshots of my home directory.
Setting hourly snapshots to take place throughout the work day is
useful, especially when you mistakenly erase the file you've been
working on for several hours...

Ray