Jef Spaleta <jspaleta(a)princeton.edu&gt; writes: Ah, but the problem is, which tools? There are many ways to copy data; there are the "make an archive" types like dump, tar, and (apparently) mondo, and the "duplicate the image" types exemplified by rsync. I use the latter, inside jwschultz's "dirvish" perl wrapper, and I am very pleased with the resulting backups, less so with the documentation, the metaphor, the recovery tools, etc. I have the logical equivalent of 90 nightly copies of my complete 85GB network stored on two redundant 200GB hard drives (one live, one in the fireproof safe), and have proven that I can restore from bare metal with a few minutes of typing and 2 hours of unattended disk transfer. But! ... the interface is *not* suitable for newbies. However, IT COULD BE! (for more info on backups with dirvish, see http:// www.pegasys.ws/dirvish/ or my incomplete newbie+ backup page at http://www.keithl.com/linuxbackup.html ) In the Wonderful World of the Future, the backup process would be designed during the install partitioning process (backup strategy helps determine partition strategy), and the file integrity checking process would be designed during the package install process (I still use tripwire, but would love a config process that is aware of rpm). These are all part of the overall process of maintaining data integrity, one of the ways Linux/Unix far surpasses the competition. It would be nice to develop this position of strength to support the newbie user. If we make backup and restore REALLY REALLY easy, then the whole idea of trying new bleeding edge distros becomes much less risky. I can load a rawhide distro, have it smash to bits, and be back to last night's FC1 status quo after a bit of typing and a trip to the movies. Makes experimenting a lot more attractive. Among other things, it made experimenting with Alan Cox's IDE hot swap (for the backup drives) easier, which made backups easier, which made other experiments easier... So, after all that, I agree with the eventual addition of backup tools (and restore tools!) as part of an intuitive data integrity toolset for Fedora Core. However, this will have to wait for the interfaces to improve, the toolsets to become more complete, and for developers to become cognizant of the amazing capabilities these toolsets can have. Keith -- Keith Lofstrom keithl(a)ieee.org Voice (503)-520-1993 KLIC --- Keith Lofstrom Integrated Circuits --- "Your Ideas in Silicon" Design Contracting in Bipolar and CMOS - Analog, Digital, and Scan ICs