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Top Forums UNIX for Advanced & Expert Users Why is editing a file by renaming the new one safer? Post 303042600 by Neo on Wednesday 1st of January 2020 03:17:37 AM
Old 01-01-2020
I agree.

For many non-critical files, where I am making small, incremental changes, I often do not make a fresh backup copy, especially because I have off-platform backups as well; and edit the file directory and save it, as normal.

Like zxmaus, I cannot recall every losing a file due to a system crash while editing a file, in over 40 decades of working with computers.

However, I do recall making a lot of "simple human mistakes" and have learned to be "saved by backups". This leads me to always recommend people make and maintain filesystem backups, based on their risk management model (criticality, vulnerability, threats).

These days, more-often-than-not, for a increasing majority of my file edits, if they are significant, I will sftp the file to my desktop, open the file in Visual Studio Code (or cut-and-paste into VSC if a small file) , edit the file using all the available syntax and formatting tools and plugins, and save the edited file with a different name, preserving the original file on my working directory on my desktop, and then I will either sftp or cut-and-past into the remote server over an ssh terminal.

I cannot count the number of times VSC has been helpful to spot a syntax error which missed my tired, overworked eyes. The formatting is also useful (indentations, consistent formatting, etc) is also very useful in VSC. These kinds of tools are really time savers, especially for syntax checking.

It goes without saying, I use vi every day to edit files; but I also use vi in conjunction with VSC, more and more; for the syntax checking and formatting for code (programming languages) and JSON files, etc. But as I am quick to confess I do edit files with vi and do not make make a backup copy, but not often; but if it is some small change which i can easily revert-back based on "memory", then I am guilty. I also push files to private GIT repositories as well, when my work on critical files are done. GIT is Good for backups Smilie
 

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bup-save(1)						      General Commands Manual						       bup-save(1)

NAME
bup-save - create a new bup backup set SYNOPSIS
bup save [-r host:path] <-t|-c|-n name> [-#] [-f indexfile] [-v] [-q] [--smaller=maxsize] DESCRIPTION
bup save saves the contents of the given files or paths into a new backup set and optionally names that backup set. Before trying to save files using bup save, you should first update the index using bup index. The reasons for separating the two steps are described in the man page for bup-index(1). OPTIONS
-r, --remote=host:path save the backup set to the given remote server. If path is omitted, uses the default path on the remote server (you still need to include the ':'). The connection to the remote server is made with SSH. If you'd like to specify which port, user or private key to use for the SSH connection, we recommend you use the ~/.ssh/config file. -t, --tree after creating the backup set, print out the git tree id of the resulting backup. -c, --commit after creating the backup set, print out the git commit id of the resulting backup. -n, --name=name after creating the backup set, create a git branch named name so that the backup can be accessed using that name. If name already exists, the new backup will be considered a descendant of the old name. (Thus, you can continually create new backup sets with the same name, and later view the history of that backup set to see how files have changed over time.) -f, --indexfile=indexfile use a different index filename instead of ~/.bup/bupindex. -v, --verbose increase verbosity (can be used more than once). With one -v, prints every directory name as it gets backed up. With two -v, also prints every filename. -q, --quiet disable progress messages. --smaller=maxsize don't back up files >= maxsize bytes. You can use this to run frequent incremental backups of your small files, which can usually be backed up quickly, and skip over large ones (like virtual machine images) which take longer. Then you can back up the large files less frequently. Use a suffix like k, M, or G to specify multiples of 1024, 10241024, 10241024*1024 respectively. --bwlimit=bytes/sec don't transmit more than bytes/sec bytes per second to the server. This is good for making your backups not suck up all your net- work bandwidth. Use a suffix like k, M, or G to specify multiples of 1024, 10241024, 10241024*1024 respectively. --strip strips the path that is given from all files and directories. A directory /root/chroot/etc saved with "bup save -n chroot --strip /root/chroot" would be saved as /etc. --strip-prefix=path-prefix strips the given path-prefix path-prefix from all files and directories. A directory /root/chroots/webserver saved with "bup save -n webserver --strip-path=/root/chroots" would be saved as /webserver/etc --graft=old_path=new_path a graft point old_path=new_path (can be used more than once). A directory /root/chroot/a/etc saved with "bup save -n chroots --graft /root/chroot/a/etc=/chroots/a" would be saved as /chroots/a/etc -#, --compress=# set the compression level to # (a value from 0-9, where 9 is the highest and 0 is no compression). The default is 1 (fast, loose compression) EXAMPLE
$ bup index -ux /etc Indexing: 1981, done. $ bup save -r myserver: -n my-pc-backup --bwlimit=50k /etc Reading index: 1981, done. Saving: 100.00% (998/998k, 1981/1981 files), done. $ ls /home/joe/chroots/httpd bin var $ bup index -ux /home/joe/chroots/httpd Indexing: 1337, done. $ bup save --strip -n joes-httpd-chroot /home/joe/chroots/httpd Reading index: 1337, done. Saving: 100.00% (998/998k, 1337/1337 files), done. $ bup ls joes-httpd-chroot/latest/ bin/ var/ $ bup save --strip-prefix=/home/joe/chroots -n joes-chroots /home/joe/chroots/httpd Reading index: 1337, done. Saving: 100.00% (998/998k, 1337/1337 files), done. $ bup ls joes-chroots/latest/ httpd/ $ bup save --graft /home/joe/chroots/httpd=/http-chroot -n joe /home/joe/chroots/httpd Reading index: 1337, done. Saving: 100.00% (998/998k, 1337/1337 files), done. $ bup ls joe/latest/ http-chroot/ SEE ALSO
bup-index(1), bup-split(1), bup-on(1), bup-restore(1), ssh_config(5) BUP
Part of the bup(1) suite. AUTHORS
Avery Pennarun <apenwarr@gmail.com>. Bup unknown- bup-save(1)
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