On Thu 30 Jan 2020 at 13:12:10 (+0100), Albretch Mueller wrote: > On 1/30/20, Stephan Seitz <stse+deb...@fsing.rootsland.net> wrote: > > On Do, Jan 30, 2020 at 12:14:19 +0100, Albretch Mueller wrote: > >> Hmm! I thought and would expect for rsync to be installed by default! > > > > No, rsync is Priority: optional. > > The first line of the DESCRIPTION of the rsync package goes: "rsync > is a fast and extraordinarily versatile file copying tool . . ."
AIUI the reason rsync is fast is because it takes short-cuts, only transferring what's different rather than the entire tree of files. > […] > Way more often and "structured" than I could possibly attribute to > normal, random issues (well, I have more than enough reasons to > believe that it cannot possibly be "random" at all ;-)), I notice my > computer being hacked. What I do is: > > 1) save all my data That might be too late if the hacker has already corrupted it. > 2) reinstall the baseline > 3) transfer all my data back to the new installation > > for §3 you would need rsync and, of course, you must do §1, §2 et §3 > off line. If you're copying *all* your data to a blanked installation, then you might as well use, say, cp -a. Your speed is being controlled by the devices and their connection which rsync cannot accelerate. > Then, I: > > 4) baseline all my data (getting a snapshot of all files metadata and > signatures of their content) > 5) connect to the Internet without javascript enabled from a > (possibly random) public place > 6) run a custom script to apt-get the rest > 7) baseline all my data again This is strange. We agree that you are paranoid, so why aren't you running your system from an immutable device like an optical disk? Debian and linux have worked hard to achieve a separation between variable files (on /var) and everything else in the OS, let alone the users' data. > You could always install the deb via dpkg, but rsync has quite a few > dependencies: > > https://packages.debian.org/stretch/rsync > > The thing is that once you connect your computer to the Internet you > are effectively relinquishing all functional illusions about "privacy" > and all those silly, ambiguous and antiquated French words. > > In fact, it would be really nice to have as an added feature at the > end of an Installation offline the option to transfer files from > backpus once the installation is finished. Isn't that why sysadmins write scripts? For example, the first script I run after installation installs git and etckeeper, runs both, then installs a list of *my* essential packages (with -y). As for my own data, that's a separate issue, and on a separate /home partition, so it's unaffected by upgrades or installations. > Just mentioning that one can go: "sudo apt" seems very easy but there > is always more than meets "easiness" > > It would be extra nice if wireshark included by default, too. Then > "paranoid" people like me would feel a bit more releaved. I think it > is important to own your base, or at least manage it the best you can. I can't see why you want to effectively force your defaults on other people. Everyone's idea of what's necessary or essential differs, and the Debian Priorities reflect that. Cheers, David.
