#qa | Logs for 2020-10-28

« return
[00:01:40] <Bytram> For example: backing up my profile. Sounds simple, right? I could copy the whole 585 MB contents of .thunderbird to another directory, but that's wasteful. So, how about tar? Same size. Use compression! How/which do I use? I look at the 988 line man page and see that there xattrs and acls, too. I'm not *certain* what those are. Do I need both? Are they a choice of one XOR the other? How can I tell which I need?
[00:02:15] <chromas> is it more wasteful than dd-ing the whole disk? :)
[00:04:23] <Bytram> tar --create --verbose --file .thunderbird.20201027_200400.bak .thunderbird
[00:04:58] <Bytram> oh, but I would like a log of the output, so add:
[00:05:15] <Bytram> tar --create --verbose --file .thunderbird.20201027_200400.bak .thunderbird > .thunderbird.20201027_200400.log
[00:05:30] <Bytram> Oh, but what about captureing error messages?
[00:05:45] <Bytram> tar --create --verbose --file .thunderbird.20201027_200400.bak .thunderbird > .thunderbird.20201027_200400.log 2>&1
[00:05:58] <Bytram> oh, wait, or is it the other way around?
[00:06:09] <Bytram> tar --create --verbose --file .thunderbird.20201027_200400.bak .thunderbird 2>&1 > .thunderbird.20201027_200400.log
[00:06:23] <Bytram> oops, forgot the compression
[00:07:00] <chromas> just rsync -a it
[00:07:36] <Bytram> tar --gzip --create --verbose --file .thunderbird.20201027_200400.bak .thunderbird 2>&1 > .thunderbird.20201027_200400.log
[00:07:41] <chromas> How were you doing it on windows?
[00:07:54] <Bytram> but shouldn't the tar file's name include a suffix?
[00:08:11] <Bytram> tar --gzip --create --verbose --file .thunderbird.20201027_200400.gz .thunderbird 2>&1 > .thunderbird.20201027_200400.log
[00:08:16] <chromas> The extension's just for prettiness
[00:08:35] <Bytram> and for me, too!
[00:08:39] <Bytram> oops, typos!
[00:09:31] <chromas> Yes, you are also for prettiness
[00:10:23] <Bytram> Nope, font was too small in HexChat, it was not showing the underlines
[00:11:09] * Bytram has learned to not rely on my ability to recall something years later (or at the end of a long night!)
[00:12:37] <Bytram> BTW, this is not just for *this* instance, but I'd like to get a general purpose invocation that captures what I want and then re-use the implementation, later.
[00:13:21] <Bytram> And, I still have no idea about xattrs and acls. Do I need them? How can I tell? What *are* they?
[00:14:53] <chromas> ACLs are for fancier permissions. xattrs can control stuff like transparent compression and other things nobody uses. Neither are needed
[00:15:00] <chromas> Windows has ACLs
[00:17:49] <Bytram> IIRC from when I tested them at IBM in the early-mid 80s, once could set up "groups" of users, each of which could have different permissions: users, admin, clerical, etc. But, I have no idea whether these are the same thing.
[00:20:22] <Bytram> case in point, I discovered that files on my external SSD that I copied local the other night copies *links* to each of my dirs for Pictures, Music, and Videos. :(
[00:21:17] <chromas> That's been the default since Windows 95, I'm pretty sure
[00:21:53] <Bytram> Also, I tend to remember what I did, but it if I learn it *wrong*, it takes me much much longer to unlearn the wrong stuff and replace it with the right stuff.
[00:22:00] <chromas> I saw someone at a Home Depot trying to figure out why the shortcuts on a floppy disk weren't opening.
[00:24:13] <Bytram> me did not intentionally use links in Windows until Win 7 Pro, but knew about them from Unix days (SYS V, IRIX, AIX, Solaris -- 90's)
[00:24:57] <Bytram> the floppy was at home stuck to the refrigerator with a magnet?
[00:26:46] <Bytram> just occurred to me what you said about Win and ACLs... Administrator, Backup, User, ... right?
[00:27:23] <chromas> By default, when you drag files over to an external storage device, Windows would turn the move operation into a create-shortcut one for some reason. At least, that's the way I remember it
[00:27:47] <chromas> Gotta right-drag or use the ctrl/shift keys
[00:29:01] <Bytram> *that* original copy was done on Linux (Internal SSD to ext SSD in a USB housing) using dd
[00:30:17] <Bytram> then, here, from external USB to local dir on native SSD, was... dd again (I *think*)
[00:31:57] <Bytram> and *then* from dir on local SSD to .thunderbird using copy/paste via caja
[00:32:14] <Bytram> brb
[00:33:48] <Bytram> back.
[00:35:35] <Bytram> so, I know enough to know I *don't* know enough... and when I try to learn something new, am uncertain that what I am doing is actually what I *meant* to do. IOW give me lotsa examples and I work from syntax to semantics just fine; the other way? Not so much!
[00:54:58] <Bytram> then, of course, how do I *verify* that I got that what I *think* I got?
[01:12:30] <Bytram> biab / afk
[07:33:47] <janrinok> Bytram - it is much simpler than you understand it at present. Your profile is ONLY the contents of xaahc7c6.default - and all you need to do is temporarily rename it to something else e.g. add '.orig' on the end of the file name.
[07:37:45] <janrinok> Then, on the CLI, type 'thunderbird -profilemanager' and create a new profile, and once you have done so select the start thunderbird button.
[07:39:23] <janrinok> You should now have a new profile which you can edit as if you had just installed tb from scratch.
[07:41:39] <janrinok> However, I could be on here later today so I'll look out for you on this chan (and elsewhere) and if you want to we can go through it step by step. As I connect successfully to SN servers too, I can talk you through the settings that work and we can take it from there.
[13:42:22] <janrinok> Bytram ^^^
[20:20:02] -!- soyCow4196 [soyCow4196!~brian@925-300-434-342.ubr6.dyn.lebanon-oh.fuse.net] has joined #qa
[21:29:21] soyCow4196 is now known as Fnord666_
[21:29:24] -!- Fnord666_ has quit [Changing host]
[21:29:24] -!- Fnord666_ [Fnord666_!~brian@Soylent/Staff/Editor/Fnord666] has joined #qa