On 21 Apr 2013 02:13, "Perry Hutchison" <per...@pluto.rain.com> wrote: > > Xin Li <delp...@delphij.net> wrote: > > > On 4/19/13 11:34 PM, Perry Hutchison wrote: > > > I'm looking for a way to move everything connected with ports and > > > packages aside, so that I can start fresh but with the ability to > > > easily roll it back when things go badly (as they surely will). > > > > > > I have in mind to something like this: > > > > > > # cd /usr > > > # mkdir old > > > # mv ports local old > > > # mkdir ports local > > > # cd /var/db > > > # mkdir old > > > # mv ports pkg old > > > # mkdir ports pkg > > > > > > Is there anything else that needs to be saved before fetching a > > > new ports tree and starting to build things (or install prebuilt > > > packages)? > > > > If you use ZFS, it's possible to take snapshot, then install new > > ports, then if something blows up, you can rollback. > > > > With UFS, it's still possible to take snapshot but rollback is not > > atomic. > > I'm aware of filesystem snapshots, but I only want to checkpoint the > ports and packages, not the whole filesystem -- a rollback needs to > be fast, easy, and obviously correct; preserve the failure logs; and > not undo changes that may have been made elsewhere in the meantime. > (BTW I don't use ZFS: the machine doesn't have enough memory, and to > me ZFS -- especially on 8.x -- doesn't yet seem sufficiently proven.) > > > If you use portmaster, it can save packages (I think portupgrade > > can do it too). But this approach depends on the fact that the > > port is well written, and is not atomic in terms of package set. > > And then a rollback requires re-installing the saved packages, which > is surely slower than moving a few directories and/or files around. > > The question is, what (if anything) else -- besides /usr/ports, > /usr/local, /var/db/ports, and /var/db/pkg -- needs to be checkpointed?
Are you installing any drivers? You may need to back up /boot too. Chris _______________________________________________ freebsd-ports@freebsd.org mailing list http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-ports To unsubscribe, send any mail to "freebsd-ports-unsubscr...@freebsd.org"