[arch-general] back up /var/log before shutdown

[Arno Gaboury]

On 06/20/2012 11:03 AM, Gaetan Bisson wrote:
> [2012-06-20 10:36:17 +0200] Arno Gaboury:
>> My /, /boot and /usr are on a BTRFS  /(except /boot on ext2) on a ssd.
>> I want to add this line in my fstab to avoid too many writings on my ssd :
>>
>> *tmpfs       /var/log       tmpfs nodev,nosuid,noexec             0     0*
>>
>> So each time I reboot, my /var/log will be emptied, which could be a
>> problem in case of serious issue on my box. I was then thinking of a
>> way to backup this folder before I shutdown. I found this trick in
>> the Arch forum:
>>
>> add this in my */etc/rc.local.shutdown*:
>>
>> |*echo "Copying LOGs..."
>>
>> now=`date +"%Y%m%d_%Hh%M"`
>> mkdir -p /logs_backup/$now
>> cp -Rp /var/log/* ~/backup/logs_backup/$now/*
>>
>> My ~ folder is on another HD.
>>
>> Will this script be enough to do the job?
> Why are you inflicting such a complicated setup on yourself if you
> cannot understand what those three little lines of shell do? That seems
> to me like a completely backward way of taking the learning curve...
>
> Also, please create new threads instead of hijacking random ones.
>
> Cheers.
>
After hours of reading, here is the correct script to add in my 
rc.shutdown.local.
I know this method will NOT work in case of system crash, but it is OK 
for me as I understand what i am doing and it is simple.

*echo -n "Copying /var/log ..."
cd /home/gabx/backup
tar -zcf  "./`date +'%d-%b-%y.tgz'`" /var/log

echo " done."*

I think it is much more simple as the one I mentioned earlier, as Gaetan 
pointed out.

Cheers.