Re: does Linux have a registry?

JM wrote:
Unruh wrote:
Matt Giwer <jull43@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> writes:

JM wrote:
Thanks for the info Chris, John, Keith, Nico, Unruh and Matt. Its great to know that no one will be controlling my computer.......especially Bill Gates. You know, the name Bill Gates fits really well with that guy. His software gives you a high credit card Bill for something that isn't that good compared to linux, and then he puts Gates up in your computer so you can't get to and control everything and he can.

From 1984 through 2000 I used DOS and Windows and then switched to linux. The MS years were a constant opportunity to learn such as learning how to make crashes less frequent, how to reinstall the OS after the hard disk crashed, the importance of backing up important data, and a host of other essential bits of knowledge to keep the computer running. And what I found that worked in one area had no necessary relation to what worked in another area and usually did not.

I have never regretted switching to linux.

What you learn about one aspect of linux is useful to all of linux as consistency of design is a goal of linux.

One other thing.......can editing the configuration files for applications or the OS mess up the computer? I'm assuming that you would have to have a decent amount of experience to edit the configuration files and know what you are doing so you didn't mess up anything. I personally don't have any experience when it comes to editing configuration files.

Yes you can screw up lots of things.

Yes, but you can almost always get out of the mess as well. Make backups,
not jsut of everything ( always a good idea) but of the files youare
changing -- then you can go back.
Secondly test on a running system before you reboot. Eg if you change
/etc/fstab, do mount -a and lok at the error reports before you reboot.
Then you can fix them. Almost everthing is testable in situations where the
test does not produce a disaster.


Rule 1. NEVER become root unless you know what you are doing and that you have to become root to do it.

Well, maybe. If you are working on a crucian system yes. On the other hand
if you can stand a crash, go ahead and experiment.
Rule 2. Do not violate Rule 1.

Nuts.



That said, if you change something in your home directory it will only screw up the application for you. Which leads us to Rule 3, make a backup of what you intend to change so you can put it back the way you found it. And Rule 4. Regardless of your years of experience as a senior systems administrator, never violate Rule 3.

These two I agree with, but do not follow. As I said if you know what
youare doing you can usually rescue yourself.


As you will eventually screw up like we all have, most applications will create the home directory files needed when they are first run. So in your home directory, if you cannot restore the file as it was, simply erase the file and run the program. This does NOT apply to .bash and other basic files like .kde and .gnome so be careful.

Actually it DOES apply to .kde and .gnome. And there isalways a backup
default for .bashrc (/etc/bashrc) which is used if youerase .bashrc



If all else fails create a new user and as root, copy the needed files from the newuser account to yours and chown you.you

Ordinarily you should not have to manually change any of these files. And while learning almost everything can be done with a small script run after the system is booted.

When all else fails, ask questions here.

--
It is very difficult to explain how the US could fight two world wars to
save the Emperors of India and claim it was fighting for democracy.
-- The Iron Webmaster, 3919
http://www.giwersworld.org a1

Thanks for the rules. I will definitely keep them in mind. The computer that I will be experimenting with linux on was given to me for free so if it crashes I can just reload the operating system and not really lose anything but time.
Also, what is the best backup software for linux? Does linux have a system restore feature?

Mmm. Very good question.

If you have a DvD burner, its probably best to write a script that actually backs up the entire files system except the ephemera - there are things that look like files that are 'built' at run time and aren't../proc is one I recall. The days /dev..as well I think - and then ignore the boot sector and dump that file system complete onto the DVD.

Rebuilding a crashed machine then becomes no more than getting a basic bootable Linux that can read the DVD, repartinong the disks and copying the lot over.

You can go a little wilder than that, and copy the boot sector as well using 'DD', but since you need a booted copy to use DD, its not that useful except if you want to clone a system onto another machine with identical hardware. It does restore partition data automatically tho.

Id be tempted to use DD to recover from a hardware fault, as long as the disk didn't change. If you need to repartition, than restoring via 'tar' from a tar archive on DVD is probably better.

YMMV and I am sure there will be other points of view.

Oh, and of course if the hardware gets changed, you nee3d to restore a lot LESS, as you may need to have configs associated with new hardware. At that level you need to be picky about what is restored..


Ive spent a day or two with an 'old' disk mounted, cherry picking through config files top get a newer faster sexier machine to behave just like the old one, only better ;-)


In the end there is no substitiute for knowledge, and no two case are the same.

Alway leave the old config file clearly marked as such when you edit it. so that you can pick through the system and work out whats different from a raw install.

/etc will net you 90% of the basic configs..its the nearest thing to a registry there is, but even so programmers have a habit of tagging the odd file elsewhere, especially if its not that 'system' oriented. And there is a habit these days of using database files accessed via database interfaces to store stuff, and those aren't always in /etc either.









JM
.

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