On 2007-12-17, lx282828@gmail.com <lx282828@gmail.com> wrote: > What I intend to do is to keep a snapshot of my RH Linux + our > production items before I upgrade it. This way, when I donwgrad it to > the original version, I can easily compare and see if the original > environment and the upgraded-then-downgraded environment are the same > (all files and their attributes are the same). So, the snapshot I'm > looking for should contains all files and their attributes (size, date- > time, ownership, access control, etc.). With this said, do you think > what you suggested ("ls -laR / > system-snapshot.txt", and "find / - > depth -ls > system-shapshot.txt")is sufficient? It sounds like you are doing something a bit odd. Perhaps you should describe why you are upgrading and then downgrading a system. Most people tend to upgrade only, unless something horrible happens with the new system. It is kind of strange to know ahead of time you'll be downgrading! And if you need to make sure file content itself has not changed, rather than just assuming that matching size and date is good enough, you should probably consider generating a checksum of each file before and after, and comparing the checksum lists.

Tim Smith <reply_in_group@mouse-potato.com> wrote: > > And if you need to make sure file content itself has not changed, rather > than just assuming that matching size and date is good enough, you > should probably consider generating a checksum of each file before and > after, and comparing the checksum lists. That is actually a very good point that almost mentioned earlier. I recommend the package 'tripwire' if you decide to go that route. Note that checksumming all the files on a system will take a lot longer then just listing all the file attributes, so that is a factor to consider. Thad -- Yeah, I drank the Open Source cool-aid... Unlike the other brand, it had all the ingredients on the label.

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- Hash: SHA1 On Tue, 18 Dec 2007 02:31:15 -0000, Tim Smith <reply_in_group@mouse-potato.com> wrote: > On 2007-12-17, lx282828@gmail.com <lx282828@gmail.com> wrote: >> What I intend to do is to keep a snapshot of my RH Linux + our >> production items before I upgrade it. This way, when I donwgrad it to >> the original version, I can easily compare and see if the original >> environment and the upgraded-then-downgraded environment are the same >> (all files and their attributes are the same). So, the snapshot I'm >> looking for should contains all files and their attributes (size, date- >> time, ownership, access control, etc.). With this said, do you think >> what you suggested ("ls -laR / > system-snapshot.txt", and "find / - >> depth -ls > system-shapshot.txt")is sufficient? > > It sounds like you are doing something a bit odd. Perhaps you should > describe why you are upgrading and then downgrading a system. Most > people tend to upgrade only, unless something horrible happens with the > new system. It is kind of strange to know ahead of time you'll be > downgrading! > > And if you need to make sure file content itself has not changed, rather > than just assuming that matching size and date is good enough, you > should probably consider generating a checksum of each file before and > after, and comparing the checksum lists. > Better yet, do it in a vm, and snapshot before you start, then you can revert to the snapshot afterwards. We do that here with deploy testing. -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: GnuPG v1.4.6 (GNU/Linux) iD8DBQFHaDw5d90bcYOAWPYRAqByAJ9H5MPV++JWIGWyMANrJkS9i+6uFACgq8HX zAgshQ6NL3ysRin8/YDuT84= =klV6 -----END PGP SIGNATURE----- -- Jim Richardson http://www.eskimo.com/~warlock Civilization consists of being able to cordially hate your neighbours