Hi guys, I wonder what exactly would be the expected change to the user with the new Added support for selecting root directory in backups item in v1.5.1 release notes?
I ask this because I’m not being given the option to backup anything above ZimaOS-HD folder, aka /DATA, which isn’t the actual root folder. The options I see are literally the ones we’ve always had before with v1.5:
I believe the wording in the 1.5.1 notes has caused some confusion.
I think the “support for selecting root directory in backups” refers to selecting the top-level of the ZimaOS-HD storage pool (/DATA). It does not expose the true system root /.
For context, the true root / only holds core system folders (bin, etc, usr, var, boot), while all meaningful user + app data lives under /DATA (AppData, Documents, Downloads, Media, VM, etc). I believe this is why the Backup tool only displays those folders.
Backing up the actual OS root / isn’t currently supported. In theory, if we could clone or back up / like a full system image, we could restore the whole OS in one step, that would be great for disaster recovery. I suggest this could be a valuable future feature, but right now the design focuses on user + app data rather than full system snapshots.
So I think nothing has changed above /DATA. The feature appears to mean selecting the top of the storage pool, not the full filesystem. If true / backup was intended, it doesn’t appear implemented yet and may need clarification from the team.
Thanks for the feedback.
It is refers to the top folder of storage.
I have reported this description issue to the team.
Thanks for the feedback, you need to backup '/ ’ directory instead of ’ /media/ZimaOS-HD ’ directory, do I understand correctly?
’ / ’ directory contains various configuration files, such as '/etc, /var/lib/casaos '.
I wonder if you want to back up the files I mentioned above? I want to understand why you back them up
I believe there’s been a bit of misunderstanding — I’m not suggesting we should back up / today.
I was only explaining the difference between backing up /DATA versus the true root /, since the release notes used the word “root”.
In practice, I think backing up / isn’t necessary right now because most important data lives under /DATA, and ZimaOS itself can be reinstalled if needed.
The only reason someone might want to back up / would be to allow a full system-level restore, essentially returning the OS and its config files to exactly the same state. That isn’t supported today, but could be useful if true image-style restores were added in the future.
For now, the backup feature is focused on user + app data in /DATA, not full OS snapshots.
Thank you for the thorough explanation. It is indeed confusing the way it has been stated in the release notes, for a moment I thought they implemented the promised system wide backup and had to put away the fireworks. lol
