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golinux

- golinux
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## Snapshot description

Sat Feb 02, 2013 5:59 am

The remastersys website has a nice description of how it works that could be (mostly) understood by even a non-Linux user. Is there a similar write-up for refractasnapshot? A search isn't bringing up what I am looking for - mostly it's truncated technical stuff. I would like to introduce these tools (and others) to some folks to get them intrigued with the possibilities offered by Linux and open source.
fsmithred

- fsmithred
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## Re: Snapshot description

Sat Feb 02, 2013 1:09 pm

No, there isn't. Would you like to write one? I can help. A wikipedia page and inclusion on this page would be good - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_r ... g_software
golinux

- golinux
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## Re: Snapshot description

Sat Feb 02, 2013 2:37 pm

Sounds like a good project. I wish I understood it well enough to write something on my own. I have read what I could find but haven't yet even given it a spin . . . it takes me a while to get into new territory. If you could get me started with a rough description and notes, I'm sure I could put everything together in a clear, understandable way. I also have never edited anything in wikipedia but could probably figure it out.
meandean

- meandean
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## Re: Snapshot description

Sat Feb 02, 2013 7:47 pm

makes a near exact clone of your system as a live (iso) image that you can burn to a cd or usb device
then you can run it live and even reinstall from it
???
golinux

- golinux
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## Re: Snapshot description

Sun Feb 03, 2013 1:40 am

> meandean wrote:makes a near exact clone of your system as a live (iso) image that you can burn to a cd or usb device
> then you can run it live and even reinstall from it
> ???

That's hardly gonna fill a wikipedia page. I'm hoping to collect everything that fsmithred (and others involved) has posted here and there so I can pull it all together into a viable presentation. Some history would be good. When was the first snapshot released? Was it based on other code or written from scratch? How is it different from other cloning options etc. Why is it better? Yada, yada . . .
nadir

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## Re: Snapshot description

Sun Feb 03, 2013 4:55 am

git clone from github might be a choice, then "git log".

Code:
  `Date: Sun May 1 08:51:15 2011 -0400
  first bash version of snapshot tool
  `

is what i can find.
git diff might show when what was added (but only the git gods know how to use that).
As far as i am concerned no one had the slightest idea of such things if meandean wouldn't have gone through the pain of reading the live-helper how-to's and making something usable out of it. Explaining it again and again, in tons of how-to's.
exclude option is something to look at (it was a milestone as far refractasnapshot is concerned, and i am not sure how other tools handle that.
I said that already:
both snapshot and installer need their own github.repo. Using different branches might be another idea. If not, not. Just saying.
Last edited by nadir on Sun Feb 03, 2013 5:15 am, edited 1 time in total.
nadir

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## Re: Snapshot description

Sun Feb 03, 2013 5:13 am

Might well be the comment is still to be found. I don't know about a tool called dzsnapshot-gui.sh (or the one who wrote it)
# based primarily on refractasnapshot-8.0.4 by Dean Linkous with ideas
# borrowed from dzsnapshot-gui.sh by David Hare, which was based on an
# earlier version of this script.
# <email.at.removed> (August 2011)
# License: GPL-3
# This is free software with NO WARRANTY. Use at your own risk!
# DESCRIPTION
# This script makes a copy of your system with rsync and then creates
# an iso file to be used as a live-cd. There are options in the config
# file to change the location of the copy and the location of the final
# iso file, in case there's not enough room on the system drive. Read
# the config file for more options. (refractasnapshot.conf)
# If you want to change any defaults, change them in the configfile.
# Default is etc/refractasnapshot.conf
# If you want to use a different config file for testing, change this
# variable. Normally, users should not edit anything in this script.
-
I could rant about that forever, mention a forum called cloudy wizzard and what not. But i don't think history needs to be that detailed and i see it all a bit romantic. For me forums debian was, for long, mainly about learning live-helper (and being in contact with others who use/know it).
-original version (whatever, me thinks based on live helper --config bootstrap --debian-install live)
- replacing live-helper with rsync (might have been earlier or later).
- fsmithred version, bash, cli
- adding exclude option (might be wrong, perhaps that was before fsmithred developed it )
- adding zenity
- adding config options (either set via home-file _or via etc/refractasnapshot, kudos to telemachus)
- enhancing here and there
Or at least similar to that.
fsmithred

- fsmithred
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## Re: Snapshot description

Sun Feb 03, 2013 1:28 pm

I found this bookmark:
how to manually install a lenny/sid live CD
Postby MeanDean » 2007-09-06 20:46
http://forums.debian.net/viewtopic.php?t=18845
But I can't find a similar one for creating a live-CD from scratch. Searched for authors, meandean, refracta and gnudude. Maybe under another name?I did find at least one that did it with live-helper, but I'm pretty sure there was one that had the raw system commands to copy the system, squash it and make the iso, and I'm pretty sure there were older discussions about doing it with live-helper.
create a debian live image using live-helper
Postby refracta » 2009-12-07 01:38
http://forums.debian.net/viewtopic.php?f=16&t=47489
Right now, I can't find the first scripts I wrote. They were simple bash scripts that ran the commands that Dean gave me, with minimal user interface and no sanity checks.
Use of excludes predates any of the bash versions I wrote.
The description in the comments is old. There are a lot more options now. I'll have to look through the code and the config file to rewrite that part.
I know that remastersys has two modes - one for backup and one for a distributable copy. I haven't looked at that code closely enough to know what things get done differently, and I surely can't decide what should be included or excluded from the copy. The default settings in refractasnapshot are somewhere between those two uses, and it's up to the user to tweak those settings for their own needs. For example, ~/.gnupg and ~/.ssh are excluded so that authorization keys and the like are excluded, but whatever files are in the user's home are not excluded.
Oh, I just had an idea about that - it would be possible to use (/)etc/skel to make the copy of the user's home in the live image. That would strip out all the personal stuff. But I'm not sure I want to go that way. I really prefer the user to decide what to include or exclude. I'm open to suggestions on this point.
nadir

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## Re: Snapshot description

Sun Feb 03, 2013 2:58 pm

Not sure if there was a "manually create a snapshot with commands".
Perhaps not in a how-to, but in a thread.
Or perhaps in a "simple" thread or a script.
Short: i am not sure.
I guess this belongs there too:
http://www.debe17.com/web_pages/deans_c ... 8.php.html
mainly the second post
(as meandean has the hang to suddenly change stuff, BroTiag backed it up, thanks to the gods, it is better than the -changed- version at forums.debian.net).
I got a Programming/Git/Github/fsmithred folder, and there i got a barebones bash script. From that is the command (i don't seem to have "git pull"'ed for a while). In case that helps you ... i can store it somewhere (i don't think it matters, the fine grained what, when, why). I only rant for fun.
for me, like said
- perhaps others -> dean -> fsmithred
- live-helper -> rsync
- at a certain time: excludes were included (not to be found with live-helper bootstrap).
- adding a little comfortable gui -aka zenity
nadir

- nadir
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## Re: Snapshot description

Sun Feb 03, 2013 3:06 pm

Perhaps:
http://forums.debian.net/viewtopic.php?p=271357
?
(name is: "manually create a liveCD from your system". lol at first answer).
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