Good time of day to everyone!

NOTE: This is not a question, but a little announcement.

I've started a project mkbck - Make Backup recently, and want to announce it here. I believe it can be useful for a lot of people, who use CLI for system administration.

A couple of years ago I've started working as system administrator. Quickly I figured out that having backup copies of important files at hand BEFORE you edit them makes you sleep better at night, instead of preparing another cup of coffee late at night, trying to make something work again.

I started using
# cp file file.date
before editing mentioned file, especially in /etc :-)

But it quickly became annoying to look at the clock and type date manually 5 times per minute.
I tried to find something to do it for me, and found nothing.

I wrote a simple shell script to perform a task. Shortly, simple cp+date inside was not enough for me. For example, i wanted to make backup and edit original in ONE command, and not two, and not bother about absolute and relative paths.

So I wrote mkbck:
Usage: mkbck [-mvVeh] [-d destination] [-s suffix] <target(s)>
Where: -m - move target instead of copying it
-e - edit target after backup
-h - display this help
-v - human readable verpose output
-V - machine parsable verbose output
format - cp/mv:dir/file:target:destination
target - file/directory to be backed up
-d dest - optional directory to place backup
into. Default is the target's base directory.
-s suffix - optional arbitrary suffix

The backup file name is : ${TARGET}.b.`date +"%Y%m%d-%H%M"`[-<COUNT>]
For example :
backup of mkbck on Mon May 30 16:55:05 IDT 2005
would be mkbck.b.[suffix.]20050530-1655

This script worked for 2 years in 3 very heterogeneous environments, and a couple of days ago I've uploaded it on SourceForge.

I will be glad, if this script will be useful general public.

Interesting little trick there. I will have to take a look at it. I have found myself in quite a jam after accidentally deleting/corrupting a file in the past, and this looks very handy (assuming I remember to make the backup before editing at least...).

Exactly for this reason I've added -e option...

Have you considered putting important files into RCS?

We probably dislike being forced into code control, but when we are the one doing the forcing, it is much less painful. RCS allows one to rollback a file from any save, lets us do a "diff" so we can see what we did, and doesn't clutter up the directory with multiple versions of the same file.

I'll give you the reasons not to do so:
1) You still have to input 2 commands
2) RCS(CVS,Subversion) are more complicate to work with.
3) You never know what file you'll have to backup next.
4) RCS(CVS,Subversion) installation and configuration is much more complicate than just put a single script in PATH
5) You don't really want to add the burden of technical support for RCS(CVS,Subversion) on hundred or so servers on your neck
6) You don't really need such complex system.

IMHO, single script with many options is better solution in this case.

Might work fine on a standalone server or desktop, but I'd recommend something like cfengine and machines with backups running daily incrementals for those dealing with a farm of servers. It might be a hassle to restore from backups if you do mess up any given file but you know they're there if you need them.

Personally I wouldn't have any use for a local backup file before editing, I rarely make mistakes and I'd only be concerned if I accidently lost the file. And then again, make a mistake, just reopen and edit it again.

Sorry for the negativity, just a personal thing as it's just as easy to implement an alias with $DATE to cp a file before opening it up to edit if I really needed something like this..

As I said, it's LOCAL TEMPORARY backup. Just to make sure, that if you have made typo in, say, /etc/profile on login server, you can QUICKLY revert the changes before angry users start calling you. Decent backup systems are not suitable for this purpose, because they are too slow. It takes too much time to open backup software, find needed file, load LTO-2 tape, rewind it to needed file and restore.
It depends on mistake one makes. You can, for example, accidentally press 2 keys instead of one.
Imagine in VI: instead of 5-d-d press 45-d-d. And save.. And save again.. Oops. Unlikely, but possible.

Mine is just another solution for the same problem. Just more sophisticated and IMHO user-friendly.