Backups

[Jamie Paul Griffin]

[ Phil Dobbin wrote on Thu 30.Aug'12 at  0:27:54 +0100 ]

> Ryan Schmidt wrote:
> > On Aug 29, 2012, at 18:07, Phil Dobbin wrote:
> > 
> >> it'd be handier just to have the
> >> files/dirs needed to run everything again & put all my ports back in
> >> place as they were if the need arose.
> >>
> >> Could somebody give me the list needed to do this?
> > 
> > MacPorts doesn't really have such a feature, but there is a procedure written about how to do that here:
> > 
> > https://trac.macports.org/wiki/Migration
> > 
> > There is also a script in the last section of that page automating the reinstallation port. So in your backup, you'd want to perhaps automate running "port -qv installed > myports.txt"
> >and saving that myports.txt file in your backups somewhere. Of course there's no guarantee that at a later time you'll be able to reinstall these particular versions of these ports again, 
> >if updates to MacPorts have occurred since you first installed them. Also, this won't save any files you've modified, like config files in /opt/local/etc; you should back up any such files yourself.
> > 
> 
> So if I `sudo cp -R /opt/local/macports` to a suitable location & use
> the ports installed file (I regularly take a snapshot of ports installed
> via `port -qv installed > myports.txt`) that should give me a head start
> in case alarm bells start to toll?
> 
> I'll also study the migration page although Snow Leopard is where I get
> off the train as far as OS X is concerned.
> 
> Cheers,
> 
>   Phil...

Couldn't you use traditional UNIX tools like dump/restore or dd to back-up /opt/local?