Cloning and Restoring System Drive

I have cloned my PB's hard drive to an external firewire drive and have checked it by booting from it -- all works well.
My question is how do I copy the cloned version over to the PB's hard drive in the event it is replaced or I just want to erase and restore it for optimizing? My ProSoft DataBackup software that I used to clone my drive isn't really clear on this. Thanks for any advice on this.

In order to clone back, you would want to simply run a clone from the external drive to the internal drive while booted off the external drive.

Similar Messages

I have had my iMac for 55 days now and twice I had to power off/on and then It does not power up correctly. I verified my disk and found errors that could not be repaired. I erased the drive and restored system back to the previous day.

I have had my iMac for 55 days now and twice I had to power off/on and then It does not power up correctly. I verified my disk and found errors that could not be repaired (errors were associated with boot drive) I erased the drive and restored system back to the previous day. Has anyone else experienced this problem?

Since it's a new machine, contact Apple's Support and let them deal with it. Allen's already recommended an Apple repair station visit. Do note that if you have AppleCare's protection plan and you're within 50 miles (80 KM) of an Apple repair station, you might be eligible for an onsite repair since yours is a desktop machine (depends on where you're located). BTW, the AppleCare Protection Plan's the best warranty policy available for desktop machines. Get it if you don't have it before contacting Apple.
27" i7 iMac (Mid 2011) refurb, OS X Mavericks (10.9.4), ML & SL, G4 450 MP w/Leopard, 9.2.2

Saving and restoring boot drive data

Hi,
Sorry, I'm sure this topic has come up a million times, but I'd greatly appreciate advice on transferring all the files from my present start up drive (Macintosh HD icon) to an external drive so that I can replace the present 125GB drive with a 250 GB one (which will become the new boot drive, home to all my important system files, startup items, prefs etc. etc. I've replaced other drives in my G4, but never the 'brain' - so I'm a little scared!
I've heard about Carbon Copy Cloner - would that do the job? How does it work? (I need to retain dual-boot OS 9/X capability) I know it's a free download, and isn't it as good as Superduper, which is shareware for $$? Or what does the latter do better?
Of course, my main concern is getting all the files to transfer back to the new drive once it's installed. I've heard there are obscure files buried deeply in the roots of the system that are also vital to operation and if not there, would mess everything up - or at least perhaps cause unexpected disasters and horrible moments...maybe I'm exaggerating.
Anyway, thanks in advance for advice on a successful and fairly painless main-drive transplant!
Keith

Hello Again! Correct in just moving the data drive into the other computer just be sure when moving these disks around that the jumpers are set correctly. Just remember that there are only two drives on an ide/ata cable. If one is jumpered "cable select" they both must be jumpered that way. If one is "master" and on the end of the cable then the other one must be jumpered "slave". The purpose in zeroing the new drive is because often times they do in fact have some bad blocks and if critical system info were to be written to those blocks it could crash the system. I recently installed a new drive and it had two bad blocks. Once you clone the drive go to the system prefs and open the startup disk pane and select the drive you want to startup from and then restart. Kappy means to start in safe mode is to startup holding the shift key down.
A couple of things to do before starting all this. One repair permissions in disk utility and second startup from another drive (if you already have a bootable system on another disk or from the install disc if you do not) and repair the main drive to be sure the directory is in good shape before you clone it. I personally use DiskWarrior for this but the disk utility will repair common problems.
In step five he means select the destination drive (the new drive) that you are cloning to and drag it to the destination field and then select the source drive (the startup bootdisk) and drag it to the source field.
I'd also unhook the external firewire if you are not cloning to it at this time. Before you physically remove the boot drive be sure the clone is working correctly and I wouldn't erase it until I was satisfied the clone was working correctly after a few days of use.
Once you are satisfied with everything you can remove the original drive and put a bigger one in its place.
The most important thing is to be sure you understand the jumper settings because if you get them wrong you may not be able to erase the drive to start with and the clone may not work correctly.
The earlier G4's often won't work with the drives set to cable select and you have to resort to the master and slave settings but if the drive on the particular ide/ata cable is using the cable select setting use the cable select setting for the other drive going on that cable.
On a last note if you need larger drives in a 128 gig max computer consider a SATA pci card. I have a couple of Sonnet 2 port SATA cards that are bootable (not all are bootable) in my 128 gig limited G4. In fact I have 2 of the Sonnet cards in my G4 running four 320 gig drives!
Once you've done this it becomes much easier. Just be sure to have time to think out what you are doing and allow time to complete the job at your pace and don't erase anything until you are sure of how everything is working. Tom

TM doesn't see its backup after migrating to new iMac and restoring system.

TM doesn't see its backup even though it still exists on the HD. I just migrated to a new iMac. After using OS X disc to 'Restore System From Backup' with TM backup it was showing the latest backup attempt had failed. The same disk was highlighted under TM Preferences too. But once I reset it TM began to make a new backup under a new folder/computer name (adding a number to the end). Is there a way to make TM see the existing BU and continue on?
Message was edited by: Sakahara

I'll try to recall to the best of my memory what I did... It's been stressful, frustrating, trying to deal with it.
Computers:
1) iMac6,1 (Late 2006) Intel 2.16 GHz Nvidia OS X 10.5.6
2) iMac8,1 (Early 2008) Intel 2.8 GHz ATI OS X 10.5.4
Perform final backup of iMac #1 with TM and SuperDuper!
Shut down and disconnect.
Hook up iMac #2 and power up.
After OS X intro select 'Transfer from another Mac' with Set Up Assistant (note: this was from the SD! backup).
Everything was selected for transfer; Users, Apps, Network,..etc. (I assumed it would update OS X too).
Transfer complete.
Restart.
Log in.*
* I have both Admin and User account. I noticed things weren't performance was off; log in was slow (Menu Bar items took longer to display, clock too), and generally overall apps,..etc seemed slow. Apps were asking for license and reg info too.
Second attempt (restore system from TM backup):
Startup from OS X 10.5.6 disc.
Erase HD with DU.
Select 'Restore System from Backup'.
Select TM backup.
After that completed, restart computer.
And that brings us to now. Well, sort of.
So what is the proper way to migrate as it were from between two different Intel iMac's? I have to assume I transfered over system files that caused a conflict with the new iMac's HW, correct? What can I do now? I've already performed new backups of both SD! and TM. I didn't think it mattered since either way the backups come from my old system. I'm guessing I should have updated OS X first on the new iMac and only selected User files, Apps, Network settings,.. etc., for transfer, or maybe installed apps fresh. I thought I was doing it correctly.
The new iMac still seems off with performance to me. I've tried performing multiple 'Repair Disk Permissions' too. There are about 32 differing permissions but DU doesn't seem able to repair them as they come up again and again. Here are some examples;
2009-05-15 09:23:47 -0700: Permissions differ on "System/Library/CoreServices/Front Row.app/Contents/CodeResources", should be -rw-r--r-- , they are lrw-r--r-- .
2009-05-15 09:23:47 -0700: Permissions differ on "System/Library/CoreServices/Front Row.app/Contents/PlugIns/DVD.frappliance/Contents/CodeResources", should be -rw-r--r-- , they are lrw-r--r-- .
2009-05-15 09:23:47 -0700: Permissions differ on "System/Library/CoreServices/Front Row.app/Contents/PlugIns/FRSettings.frappliance/Contents/CodeResources", should be -rw-r--r-- , they are lrw-r--r-- .
2009-05-15 09:23:47 -0700: Permissions differ on "System/Library/CoreServices/Front Row.app/Contents/PlugIns/FRSources.frappliance/Contents/CodeResources", should be -rw-r--r-- , they are lrw-r--r-- .
2009-05-15 09:23:47 -0700: Permissions differ on "System/Library/CoreServices/Front Row.app/Contents/PlugIns/Movies.frappliance/Contents/CodeResources", should be -rw-r--r-- , they are lrw-r--r-- .
2009-05-15 09:23:52 -0700: Permissions differ on "System/Library/PrivateFrameworks/iPhotoAccess.framework/Versions/A/CodeResourc es", should be -rw-r--r-- , they are lrw-r--r-- .
2009-05-15 09:23:52 -0700: Permissions differ on "System/Library/PrivateFrameworks/iPhotoAccess.framework/Versions/A/Resources/P lugins/BlackAndWhiteEffect.IAPlugin/Contents/CodeResources", should be -rw-r--r-- , they are lrw-r--r-- .
2009-05-15 09:23:52 -0700: Permissions differ on "System/Library/PrivateFrameworks/iPhotoAccess.framework/Versions/A/Resources/P lugins/CubeTransition.IAPlugin/Contents/CodeResources", should be -rw-r--r-- , they are lrw-r--r-- .
2009-05-15 09:23:52 -0700: Permissions differ on "System/Library/PrivateFrameworks/iPhotoAccess.framework/Versions/A/Resources/P lugins/DissolveTransition.IAPlugin/Contents/CodeResources", should be -rw-r--r-- , they are lrw-r--r-- .
2009-05-15 09:23:52 -0700: Permissions differ on "System/Library/PrivateFrameworks/iPhotoAccess.framework/Versions/A/Resources/P lugins/DropletTransition.IAPlugin/Contents/CodeResources", should be -rw-r--r-- , they are lrw-r--r-- .
2009-05-15 09:23:52 -0700: Permissions differ on "System/Library/PrivateFrameworks/iPhotoAccess.framework/Versions/A/Resources/P lugins/FadeThroughBlackTransition.IAPlugin/Contents/CodeResources", should be -rw-r--r-- , they are lrw-r--r-- .
My final attempt to straighten this out is to install from OS X disc fresh (erase/install). Transfer only User files, Network settings, anything pertinent to my Users (email, browser, keychain,..),... and nothing else. Reinstall 3rd-Party Apps. I had to do this before after updating from Tiger to Leopard because it didn't take well.
Any help/insight appreciated.

Cloning and New C Drive

Greetings, I have a T450S with a 512 gB SSD in the main bay. I picked up a 256 M.2 that I put in for extra storage. I would like to transfer the OS and all my programs to the M.2 and keep my files and whatnot on the SSD. If I simply clone the SSD (I'll remove files to get it under 256 gB) to the M.2 can I then just rename it to the C drive? I've heard of people cloning and then running into issues with programs because it's looking for things on the C drive but the clone is now D or something. Photoshop is known for this issue and it's one of the primary tools I use, so if that's any concern then it's a no go for me. Thanks,

Pretty sure you can't rename a drive with the same letter as the current old one (i.e., if you have a C drive, your new one will automatically pick a different letter; you have to rename the current C drive to another letter before naming another drive as C). But, if you clone the drive properly, it should take all the properties of the original drive, including the letter. If you're keeping both drives in the machine, you'll have to rename the old one and play around with some settings so it doesn't give you problems. If this doesn't work, it might be easier to just reinstall your programs on the new drive.

Cloning and restoring

I have some HD problems so I want to reinstall.
What I'm going to do is clone my hard drive to an external drive.
How I proceed is what I need help with.
Is it possible for me to restore my old configuration from the cloned drive and if so how to do I it?
I'm assuming the steps are:
1 - Clone drive to external drive
2 - Reinstall OS X
3 - Restore my config from the external?
The reason I'm doing this is because I'm having some issues with the GUI. If I clone my HD will I just be cloning the problem?
Any advice much appreciated.
cheers
G5 2x2ghz Mac OS X (10.4.6)

I'm assuming the steps are:
1 - Clone drive to external drive
2 - Reinstall OS X
3 - Restore my config from the external?
The reason I'm doing this is because I'm having some
issues with the GUI. If I clone my HD will I just be
cloning the problem?
You could very well clone the problem and when you restore it will erase the disk and clone the clone back to the main hard drive, so installing the OS is just a waste.
Best thing to do is create your clone - make sure it's on a firewire drive - then boot off of it to make sure it's good.
Then boot off the install DVD and do an Erase and Install on your main hard drive. This will totally erase your disk so make sure your clone has everything. When you reboot on the shiny new OS it will bring you through the usual setup stuff, at some point you will get a screen asking if you want to use Migration Assistant, click yes. Then it will ask you which hard drive, select your clone and it will transfer over all your files, apps and settings to your shiny new system. It will take a while, couple hours or so depending on how big your hard drive is and how much info you have stored.
It's still possible to bring the problem back depending on what it is but it's much less likely.

Removing spyware by cloning and restoring

I have reason to believe that someone installed Spector or some other spyware program on my iMac. So I'd like to do a complete "clone" backup to an external drive, Erase and Format the Mac, then reinstall my apps and System software. Anyone have an app to recommend for the Backup-Clone-Restore process? I hear a lot about Carbon Copy. Will it literally restore my Mac to its prior configuration -- OS, applications, libraries, prefs, etc> I'm willing to pay for the best, easiest app to do this! -- david

Hi David:
I left you a response on the "spyware" thread earlier.
Malcom is correct about cloning. Most cloning programs do just that: clone. They clone bit by bit. Even though the spector files are invisible to the cloning program, that does not matter because the clone program makes an exact copy of all sectors on the drive.
Actually a non destructive re-install of OS X should erradicate spector completely (at least its functionality). You may find traces of the spector program in your applications folder and/or other places on your drive. If you do, Those files should be harmless once spector is neutered by the re-install. Just drag them to the trash.
Once the kernel hook is disabled any lingering spector program files will suddenly be visible. A re-install of OS X replaces all bsd system files, kernel drivers, etc with factory copies, so you should be good to go. All updates will have have to be re-installed though and don't forget to delete your previous system folder as that will be where some (if not all) of the spector program files will reside after the re-install.
I know if I caught someone doing that to my Mac, there would definitely be a day of reckoning...

Can I install Lion over Snow Leopard without erasing and restoring hard drive?

Been reading a lot about downloading Lion. Recommended to back up hard drive to ext. drive, erase hard drive, install Lion and then re-install apps and files from ext. drive. Can I just install Lion over Snow Leopard without erasing all apps and files on hard drive?

If you do an upgrade install then be sure to do this first:
1. Repair the Hard Drive and Permissions
Boot from your Snow Leopard Installer disc. After the installer loads select your language and click on the Continue button. When the menu bar appears select Disk Utility from the Utilities menu. After DU loads select your hard drive entry (mfgr.'s ID and drive size) from the the left side list. In the DU status area you will see an entry for the S.M.A.R.T. status of the hard drive. If it does not say "Verified" then the hard drive is failing or failed. (SMART status is not reported on external Firewire or USB drives.) If the drive is "Verified" then select your OS X volume from the list on the left (sub-entry below the drive entry,) click on the First Aid tab, then click on the Repair Disk button. If DU reports any errors that have been fixed, then re-run Repair Disk until no errors are reported. If no errors are reported click on the Repair Permissions button. Wait until the operation completes, then quit DU and return to the installer.
If DU reports errors it cannot fix, then you will need Disk Warrior and/or Tech Tool Pro to repair the drive. If you don't have either of them or if neither of them can fix the drive, then you will need to reformat the drive and reinstall OS X.
2. Make a bootable backup just in case. Clone using Restore Option of Disk Utility
Open Disk Utility from the Utilities folder.
Select the destination volume from the left side list.
Click on the Restore tab in the DU main window.
Check the box labeled Erase destination.
Select the destination volume from the left side list and drag it to the Destination entry field.
Select the source volume from the left side list and drag it to the Source entry field.
Double-check you got it right, then click on the Restore button.
Destination means the external backup drive. Source means the internal startup drive.

What is the best way to remove apps and restore hard drive space?

My bilt in drive is running out of room and I need to remove some stuff. Wondering what "other" catagory is in the storage chart.

1. Empty Trash.
    http://support.apple.com/kb/PH10677
2. Delete "Recovered Messages", if any.
    Hold the option key down and click "Go" menu in the Finder menu bar.
    Select "Library" from the dropdown.
    Library > Mail > V2 > Mailboxes
    Delete "Recovered Messages", if any.
    Empty Trash. Restart.
3. Repair Disk
    Steps 1 through 7
    http://support.apple.com/kb/PH5836
4. For more on this and very helpful tips:
    http://pondini.org/OSX/DiskSpace.html
    http://pondini.org/OSX/LionStorage.html
5. Local Snapshots?
http://support.apple.com/kb/ht4878

Copy server system setup to replacement system drive

Run a simple home server (OS 10.3.9) on an older machine (MDD Dual 8.67, 1G ram). As I can't boot from a RAID, I configured it with a single small drive for the server software, and a 1Tb raid for storage. the open remaining slot I filled with a scratch drive for video storage.
Well, the inevitable happened, and the system drive corrupted. I can read everything on it, but can't repair it or boot from it. Is there an easy way to pull all of the network settings from the defunct drive to a fresh install of the server software on the scratch drive? I know a clone won't work because of the irreparable failure.
Any help appreciated.
Thanks

I am attempting to restore to an ultra ATA internal HD. I have just attempted to restore with Carbon Clone, Super Duper and Mac Disc Utilities. The system crashes with each application. I'm not sure why, but it just crashes, and will not allow a clone to be produced.
Disc utilities reveals no issues with the system flolder, or any other folder within the main volume HD....I wonder, though, if there is an undetectable, corrupted folder somewhere in the main HD? There does not appear to be anything wrong with the new HD either, but I wonder if there is?
Power Mac G4 (AGP Graphics) Mac OS X (10.4.6) Upgraded 1.8 Ghz dual processor

Reformat and restore directed by disk utility

I have mid 2011 Air. Disk utility has told me to reformat and restore system to solve problem with SSD. Won't reformating destroy the ability to restore ystem fron the SSD? How should I do this?

On systems delivered with Lion or later, you have the recovery partition, which is what you are booting from when you boot with the command and r keys held down. The recovery partition is a separate partition on the hard drive/SSD and is not visible in DIsk Utility. Think of it as the same as install disks you used to get with the system. When you say to erase the disk, you are erasing the partition that houses all the system/data, not the recovery partition.
See this for general description of OS X recovery, noting it says you can erase your hard drive from thru OS X recovery.
See this for how to use Time Capsule for recovery
See this for more details on OS X recovery

Help - Unmounting external USB drives causes error to system drive

Hi,
I am having problems with my Mid 2009 24" iMac OS 10.6.7. When unmounting external drives(usb OR firewire), I get either a message that "your computer must be restarted...." or sometimes system freezes.
Upon reboot and examining system drive with Disk Utility, I will find file count and/or folder count errors. I must then reboot from my SL disc, repair the errors and reboot, after which the system seems to run without problems...
So far, upon reconnecting and mounting those external drives, I have found no errors or anything that would lead me to believe that they were not unmounted correctly...
Any help with this would be appreciated. It is beginning to be frustrating to go through this crash and repair of the system drive each time I try to use an external drive....
Thanks,
JP

I have heard others with this problem so I am really surprised none here can help. My iMac has just crashed for the third time with corrupted disks because of this problem.
I will try Macfixit or something. Thanks

Restoring System from Backup

When the mac os x cd installer is running you can go to "Utilities" and "Restore System from Backup". Does this command install snow leopard and then add the time machine files or does it just restore the files (meaning you will have to install Snow Leopard first).

Have a read here How do I restore my entire system?
It restores both the OSX system and the user files (applications and data).
Stefan

During ram preview ae cc wildly accessing system drive

After effects cc builds a ram preview of a 1920x1080 file without problem, the cache is on a secondary HD drive or SSD with plenty of speed and free space and there are 16 GB of RAM - but when the ram preview starts to play, sooner than 15 seconds it will become stilted and the system drive will start crackling like crazy. The activity of the system drive is so intense that the mac becomes sluggish and irresponsive.
An interesting aspect is that if it will keep playing as stilted as it is, after 2-3 cycles of the same ram preview range, the playback will become more fluid.
This happens - unbelievable- on a mac pro with 16 GB of RAM and latest Lion OS. All the files are on different drives than the system, and the cache was hard drives or ssd - all high speed, all internal drives.
And the latest surprise - assuming that maybe the system drive got too fragmented, I changed it for a brand new hd with all the programs transfered on the new drive from a time machine backup.
Same insane activity of the system drive at the less than 15 sec mark of ram preview playback.
Anyone encountered this wild accessing of the system drive by after effects cc during ram preview?

Good Points - you are partly right and my settings are attached here at the end.
I fiddled with them for a while (and even now they are too much in favor of AE) because it looked like they were not changing much from that weird behavior. The fact is that I tried most values - from max to minimum for background processes -nothing changed much except the speed of the rendering. The stumbling and the wild accessing of the main drive continued no matter what after the 14 seconds mark of all HD renderings.
Seeing than no one can help here either, yesterday I tried changing everything else in the Preferences to see what makes any difference in AE CC 12.1 and get over with this behavior.
And 2 unexpected settings really made a difference for me:
1-the QuickTime Video Preview, unchecked, ended the inescapable stumbling at the 14 s mark. I don't know how, but it made a crucial difference.
2- at the Memory page I checked the Reduce Cache size when system is low on memory. It prevented the RAM preview from using all the ram and leave the mac processes starving and turning the machine sluggish.
The Ram preview now happens in an interesting fashion (I have Memory Cleaner, a benign app, really useful to show how much RAm you really have at a given moment on a Mac). The green line above the timeline now expands until RAM decreases to low numbers like ~500MB RAM left. The Preview processing then waits a matter of seconds until the numbers increase again beyond 1.5 GB and then continues to extend the line - and so on until it reaches the end of the work area. There is no crackling anymore (accessing system HD).
I am using only SSDs and auxiliary HD drives (for output and source files) and all Ram previews now are completely quiet.
So, I have found my solution so far. But there still is a question the AE designers might want to think:
If they know that AE will unload the RAM onto the system HD, why don't they insert an option in the Prefs to allow this unloading to happen onto any secondary drive - choosen by the user.
A secondary drive unload at least will not interfere with the system processes - turning the mac sluggish and add insult to injury.
My numbers below could look tight now, but the previews are really fast and I quit all secondary processes on my mac when AE is working.

Backpac: A package state snapshot and restore tool for Arch Linux

backpac:
A package state snapshot and restore tool for Arch Linux with config file save/restore support.
https://aur.archlinux.org/packages.php?ID=52957
https://github.com/altercation/backpac (see readme on the github repository for more information)
Summary & Features
It's a common method of setting up a single system: take some notes about what packages you've installed, what files you've modified.
Backpac creates those notes for you and helps back up important configuration files. Specifically, backpac does the following:
maintains a list of installed groups (based on 80% of group packages being installed)
maintains a list of packages (including official and aur packages, listed separately)
maintains a list of files (manually created)
backs up key config files as detailed in the files list you create
The package, group and files lists along with the snapshot config files allows system state to be easily committed to version control such as git.
Backpac can also use these lists to install packages and files. Essentially, then, backpac takes a snapshot of your system and can recreate that state from the files and lists it archives.
Use Cases
Ongoing system state backup to github
Quick install of new system from existing backpac config
Conform current system to given state in backpac config
Backpac is a very, very lightweight way of saving and restoring system state.
It's not intended for rolling out and maintaining multiple similar systems, it's designed to assist individual users in the maintainance of their own Arch Linux box.
Status
Alpha, release for testing among those interested. Passing all tests right now but will continue to rework and refine. Bug reports needed.
Why?
There are a lot of 'big-iron' solutions to maintaining, backing up and restoring system state. Setting these up for a single system or a handful of personal systems has always seemed like overkill.
There are also some existing pacman list making utilities around, but most of them seem to list either all packages or don't separate the official and aur packages the way I wanted. Some detect group install state, some don't. I wanted all these features in backpac.
Finally, whatever tool I use, I'd like it to be simple (c.f. the Arch Way). Lists that are produced should be human readable, human maintainable and not different from what I'm using in non-automated form. Backpac fulfills these requirements.
Regarding files, I wanted to be able to backup arbitrary system files to a git repository. Tools like etckeeper are interesting but non /etc files in that case aren't backed up (without some link trickery) and there isn't any automatic integration with pacman, so there is no current advantage to using a tool like that. I also like making an explicit list of files to snapshot.
Sample Output
This is the command line report. Additionally, backpac saves this information to the backpac groups, packages and files lists and the files snapshot directory.
$ backpac -Qf
backpac
(-b) Backups ON; Files will be saved in place with backup suffix.
-f Force mode ON; No prompts presented (CAUTION).
(-F) Full Force mode OFF; Prompt displayed before script runs.
(-g) Suppress group check OFF; Groups will be checked for currency.
(-h) Display option and usage summary.
(-p) Default backpac: /home/es/.config/backpac/tau.
-Q Simple Query ON; Report shown; no changes made to system.
(-R) Auto-Remove OFF; Remove/Uninstall action default to NO.
(-S) System update OFF; No system files will be updated.
(-U) backpac config update OFF; backpac files will not be updated.
Sourcing from backpac config directory: /home/es/.config/backpac/tau
Initializing.................Done
GROUPS
============================================================================
/home/es/.config/backpac/tau/groups
GROUPS UP TO DATE: group listed in backpac and >80% local install:
base base-devel xfce4 xorg xorg-apps xorg-drivers xorg-fonts
GROUP PACKAGES; MISSING?: group member packages not installed:
(base: nano)
(xfce4: thunar xfdesktop)
PACKAGES
============================================================================
/home/es/.config/backpac/tau/packages
PACKAGES UP TO DATE: packages listed in backpac also installed on system:
acpi acpid acpitool aif alsa-utils augeas cowsay cpufrequtils curl dialog
firefox gamin git ifplugd iw mesa mesa-demos mutt netcfg openssh rfkill
rsync rxvt-unicode sudo terminus-font vim wpa_actiond wpa_supplicant_gui
xmobar xorg-server-utils xorg-twm xorg-utils xorg-xclock xorg-xinit xterm
yacpi yajl youtube-dl zsh
AUR UP TO DATE: aur packages listed in backpac also installed on system:
flashplugin-beta freetype2-git-infinality git-annex haskell-json
package-query-git packer wpa_auto xmonad-contrib-darcs xmonad-darcs
AUR NOT IN backpac: installed aur packages not listed in backpac config:
yaourt-git
FILES
============================================================================
/home/es/.config/backpac/tau/files
MATCHES ON SYSTEM/CONFIG:
/boot/grub/menu.lst
/etc/acpi/handler.sh
/etc/rc.conf
/etc/rc.local

firecat53 wrote:I think your plan for handling an AUR_HELPER is good. If AUR_HELPER is defined by the user, then either you might need a list of major AUR helpers and their command line switches so you can pick the correct switch for what needs to be done (most use some variation of -S for installing, but not all), or have the user define the correct switch(es) somehow for their chosen AUR helper.
That's a good idea. I'll add that to my AUR refactoring todo.
I also found directory tracking to be a weakness in other dotfile managers that I tried. I think you would definitely have to recursively list out the contents of a tracked directory and deal with each file individually. Wildcard support would be nice...I just haven't personally found a use case for it yet.
I've been thinking that I could just add the directory and scan through it for any non-default attribute files. If those are found then they get automatically added to the files list. That's pretty close to what etckeeper does.
Edit: I just compiled the dev version and removed my comments for already fixed things...sorry!
The master branch should have those fixes as well, but I didn't update the version number in the package build. I'll have to do that.
1. Still apparently didn't handle the escaped space for this item: (the file does exist on my system)
Ok, good to know. This wildcard directory business will require some new code and refactoring so I'll also rework my filenames handling.
2. Suggestion: you should make that awesome README into a man page!
I was working on one (the pkgbuild has a commented out line for the man page) but I had to leave it for later. Definitely want a man page. Once this stabilizes and I'm sure there aren't any big structural changes, I'll convert it to man format.
3. Suggestion: add the word 'dotfile' into your description somewhere on this page, the github page, and in the package description so people looking for dotfile managers will find it. You could also consider modularizing the script into a dotfile manager and the package manager, so people on other distros could take advantage of your dotfile management scheme.
I actually have a different script for dotfile management that doesn't touch packages, but there is definitely overlap with this one. That script isn't released yet, though, and if people find this useful for dotfile management that's great. I'll add that in.
4. Suggestion: since -Q is a read-only operation, why not just make it run with -f automatically to avoid the prompt?
Originally, running backpac without any command line options produced the Query output. I was concerned that since it is a utility that can potentially overwrite system files, it is important to give users a clear statement prior to execution about what will be done. Since the Query output is essentially the same as the Update and System reports in format and content, I wanted to be explicit about the Query being a passive no-change operation. The current command line options aren't set in stone though. If you feel strongly about it being different, let me know.
Long answer to a short question
5. Another suggestion: any thought to providing some sort of 'scrub' function to remove private information from the stored files if desired? This would be cool for publishing public dotfiles to github. Perhaps a credentials file (I did this with python for my own configs). Probably detecting email addresses and passwords without a scrub file would be rather difficult because dotfiles come in so many flavors.
Yes, absolutely. In fact, if you look at the lib/local file (pretty sure it's in both master and dev branches in this state) you'll see some references to a sanitize function. The idea there is that the user will list out bash associative arrays like this:
SANITIZE_WPA_=(
[FILE]='/etc/wpa_supplicant.conf'
[CMD]='sed s/expungepattern/sanitizedoutput/g'
Question: am I missing an obvious option to remove a file from the files.d directory if I delete it from the files list? Or do I have to delete it manually? It might be helpful to add a section to the README on how to update and delete dotfiles from being tracked, and also a more detailed description of what the -b option does (and what is actually created when it's not used).
You are only missing the function I didn't finish. There should be either dummy code or a TODO in the backpac main script referencing garbage collection, which isn't difficult but I just haven't finished it. The idea being another loop of "hey I found these old files in your files.d, mind if I delete them?" It's on my list and I'll try to get it in asap.
And finally, just out of curiosity, why did you choose to actually copy the files instead of symlink like so many other dotfile managers do?
git not following symlinks, hardlinks also out for permissions issues (git wouldn't be able to read the files, change them, etc.)
I definitely would prefer to not make an entire copy of the file, but I haven't come up with a better option. Shout with ideas, though. Also, if there is a way around the link issues I noted above, let me know. I don't see one but that doesn't mean it's not there.
edit: I think a Seattle area Arch meetup would be cool! Perhaps coffee someplace? Bellevue? U-district? Anyone else? BYOPOL (bring your own pimped out laptop)
A general meetup sounds good. I was also thinking it would be fun to do a mini archcon with some demos.

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