How to tune filetool.lst for fast backup/restore

[jur]

I spent some time in finding out what files in my home folder need to be backed up, and which ones are re-created on reboot. By having only what is necessary in filetool.lst, and by excluding unnecessary browser stuff, I have very fast backup and restore.

So to help others, here is my filetool.lst and xfiletool.lst:

Filetool.lst:

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opt/bootlocal.sh
opt/shutdown.sh
opt/.tcrc
opt/.filetool.lst
opt/.xfiletool.lst
usr/local/etc/acpi/events/all
usr/share/fonts/arial.ttf
usr/share/fonts/arialbd.ttf
usr/share/fonts/arialbi.ttf
usr/share/fonts/ariali.ttf
usr/share/fonts/comic.ttf
usr/share/fonts/comicbd.ttf
usr/share/fonts/cour.ttf
usr/share/fonts/courbd.ttf
usr/share/fonts/courbi.ttf
usr/share/fonts/couri.ttf
usr/share/fonts/tahoma.ttf
usr/share/fonts/tahomabd.ttf
home/tc/.acpi
home/tc/.beaver
home/tc/.config/chromium
home/tc/.config/rox.sourceforge.net
home/tc/.local/bin
home/tc/.mywbar
home/tc/.openoffice.org2/user
home/tc/.Skype
home/tc/.sounds
home/tc/.thunderbird/profiles.ini
home/tc/.ash_history
home/tc/.conkyrc
home/tc/.jwmrc
home/tc/.jwmrc-keys
home/tc/.jwmrc-theme
home/tc/.jwmrc-tray
home/tc/.profile
home/tc/.Xdefaults
home/tc/.bashrc
home/tc/.ashrc
home/tc/.gtk-bookmarks
home/tc/.gtkrc-2.0
home/tc/.xsession
(The ttf font files are symlinks only, occupying very little space and requiring little time. The actual fonts live outside, since they won't change and are quite large.)

xfiletool.lst:

Code: [Select]

Cache
XUL.mfasl
opt/.tce_dir
home/tc/.config/vlc/vlcrc
home/tc/.beaver/wordfile.txt
home/tc/.config/chromium/Safe Browsing Bloom
home/tc/.config/chromium/Safe Browsing Bloom Filter 2
home/tc/.config/chromium/Dictionaries
home/tc/.config/chromium/Default/Archived*
home/tc/.config/chromium/Default/*.bak
home/tc/.config/chromium/Default/Current*
home/tc/.config/chromium/Default/*Index*
home/tc/.config/chromium/Default/Last*
home/tc/.config/chromium/Default/Visited*
home/tc/.config/chromium/Default/Web*
home/tc/.config/chromium/Default/Sync Data
home/tc/.config/chromium/Default/History

Edit:

Forgot to mention this is for my USB pendrive, which I use anywhere and which contains both windows and tcl stuff. I don't have a persistent /home, since this would tend to shorten the USB drive's lifespan.

For my hard drive installation, I back up only my own scripts.

[roberts]

Thanks for sharing. Shows that a little file maintenance can go along way to having quick backups!

[Jason W]

One more tip, this command at the command prompt will let you eliminate all files in /home/tc that are over 5MB large by adding them to the /opt/.xfiletool.lst.  Of course, change 5000k (5mb) to whatever your tolerance is.  This is to be run right before making your backup.  Gives you a quick method of eliminating large files.  Of course, the resulting adds to /opt/.xfiletool.lst would need to be edited of any files above your tolerance that you would want to keep, or use the "-not -name" option in the find command to point out those files that are wanted..

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find /home/tc -size +5000k | cut -f2- -d / >> /opt/.xfiletool.lst

or

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find /home/tc -not -name tinycore_2.7.iso -not -name firefox.tcz -size +5000k | cut -f2- -d / >> /opt/.xfiletool.lst

Of course, the opposite approach can be used, by including files beneath a certain size to .filetool.sh

Code: [Select]

find /home/tc -size -5000k | cut -f2- -d / >> /opt/.filetool.lst

And then simply manually adding the few large files you want to keep to the backup.  The second approach of course assumes that the /home/tc directory has been removed from /opt/.filetool.lst.  And also, that those files in /opt/.filetool;lst actually exist or an error will occur  The safer way is to use the first method if this way is used.

[MakodFilu]

I would include /home/tc/.logo.xpm since is is recreated at boot time and every time you change your background to some color from a .bz2 under /usr/share/xpm

[thane]

<bump>

Just switched to Chromium after a long time using Namoroka, and immediately had a backup file 10X larger than it used to be. A belated thank you to jur for researching a solution.