![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
afunaI accidentally wiped out my entire dev folder -- we have a bootstrap script, so setting up the repos again is easy, but my unsubmitted patches were another matter.
Unluckily, my dev environment is in a virtual machine, and I excluded that virtual machine from my Time Machine backup (in hind sight, not the smartest decision ever).
Worse still, it may not have been much help in this case because my older sister borrowed my portable hard drive and hadn't returned it, so I haven't been able to back up for ages. A backup plan is good and fine, but a backup plan you didn't actually run is less so!
BUT. Luckily, I occasionally push my MQs (mercurial queues -- where my patches are stored) to my public webserver, so that I can test my code in an environment that's set up closer to production.
The last time I did so was a month ago. And I didn't lose a month's worth of work, because almost everything is short-term and had either already been submitted to zilla for review, or was committed as soon as it was coded. I judge I only lost a couple patches, most of them involving only debug and exploratory work, rather than actual behavior-modifying code.
That left long-term projects (redesigns, etc). BUT and I still cannot believe how lucky this is because seriously if there ever was an afternoon where it would be okay for me to delete all my work locally, this was it, I had just transferred over a copy of my update page redesign work to my public server because I'd been talking over things withfoxfirefey and wanted to show my progress to her.
So I lost an afternoon's worth of work on the update page, and I lost a few small things in misc projects, but it could have been so much worse.
This all has led me to re-examine my back-up strategy.
In entirely more pleasant news, I have finished a shawl for my maternal grandmother, and am now looking at making a vest for my paternal grandfather. I'm not sure what makes a good vest pattern though; I have never done one, and I'm overwhelmed by the options on Ravelry!
(If I could narrow it down to all vests that open in the middle so you can put them on easily, rather than pulling them over your head, that would be a good start)
Also I am sending a friend of mine a hat! :DD :DD :DD
I have been working diligently, and I have finally cut down my projects to just three in progress: a pair of gloves where the second glove, barely started, is much looser in gauge than the first which is stumping me; a hat I ran out of yarn for, so I'm waiting for new ones from my LYS; the Grounded scarf which is perfect for mindless comfort knitting, so I'm saving it up for when I need something like that. Oh, and a half-finished top which I started when I was new to knitting and which is finished up to just below my breasts. I think I'll undo everything I have; I don't have the rest of the pattern because the person who was helping me is no longer at my LYS, and the tension is very uneven besides. I am only holding on to it for nostalgia *_*
Ooh and another project will be added to that list, as soon as I figure out a patten for my grandpa's vest.
I think that my knitting projects are multiplying. (help)
Unluckily, my dev environment is in a virtual machine, and I excluded that virtual machine from my Time Machine backup (in hind sight, not the smartest decision ever).
Worse still, it may not have been much help in this case because my older sister borrowed my portable hard drive and hadn't returned it, so I haven't been able to back up for ages. A backup plan is good and fine, but a backup plan you didn't actually run is less so!
BUT. Luckily, I occasionally push my MQs (mercurial queues -- where my patches are stored) to my public webserver, so that I can test my code in an environment that's set up closer to production.
The last time I did so was a month ago. And I didn't lose a month's worth of work, because almost everything is short-term and had either already been submitted to zilla for review, or was committed as soon as it was coded. I judge I only lost a couple patches, most of them involving only debug and exploratory work, rather than actual behavior-modifying code.
That left long-term projects (redesigns, etc). BUT and I still cannot believe how lucky this is because seriously if there ever was an afternoon where it would be okay for me to delete all my work locally, this was it, I had just transferred over a copy of my update page redesign work to my public server because I'd been talking over things with
foxfirefey and wanted to show my progress to her.So I lost an afternoon's worth of work on the update page, and I lost a few small things in misc projects, but it could have been so much worse.
This all has led me to re-examine my back-up strategy.
- my public server is backed up by my webhost for a small fee. I have my personal website on both my laptop and the public server. I need to check how much other things I have on my server which I can back up locally as well
- my phone and tablet are both backed up to my laptop (I'll need to make sure I sync more often though >_>)
- my laptop is backed up, but only to one portable hard drive. I am planning to buy a newer non-portable external hard drive (my brother found one my Western Digital: 2TB, USB 3, 6.5k pesos), and Il'l be backing up to both.
- my virtual machines images are still not backed up, but most of what is in there either comes with the OS or is just testing data / sessions
- instead of storing my dev folder in the virtual machine, where it can't be backed up, and accessing it via sshfs from my mac for editing, I have turned it the other way around. Now I have my dev folder on my mac, where it will be backed up, and I have mounted it as a shared folder in the virtual machine. My server runs a tiny bit slower now, alas, but it's still faster than if I had to contend with a network bottleneck, and I can live with that for the added security of being able to back up
- perhaps I should back up a few essential but non-sensitive files to Dropbox?
In entirely more pleasant news, I have finished a shawl for my maternal grandmother, and am now looking at making a vest for my paternal grandfather. I'm not sure what makes a good vest pattern though; I have never done one, and I'm overwhelmed by the options on Ravelry!
(If I could narrow it down to all vests that open in the middle so you can put them on easily, rather than pulling them over your head, that would be a good start)
Also I am sending a friend of mine a hat! :DD :DD :DD
I have been working diligently, and I have finally cut down my projects to just three in progress: a pair of gloves where the second glove, barely started, is much looser in gauge than the first which is stumping me; a hat I ran out of yarn for, so I'm waiting for new ones from my LYS; the Grounded scarf which is perfect for mindless comfort knitting, so I'm saving it up for when I need something like that. Oh, and a half-finished top which I started when I was new to knitting and which is finished up to just below my breasts. I think I'll undo everything I have; I don't have the rest of the pattern because the person who was helping me is no longer at my LYS, and the tension is very uneven besides. I am only holding on to it for nostalgia *_*
Ooh and another project will be added to that list, as soon as I figure out a patten for my grandpa's vest.
I think that my knitting projects are multiplying. (help)
no subject
Date: 2011-02-17 01:29 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-02-18 08:53 am (UTC)(Who don't poop on your rug)
no subject
Date: 2011-02-17 03:16 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-02-17 07:43 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-02-18 08:54 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-02-17 11:01 pm (UTC)My weakness isn't collecting patterns, but materials. I have far too many boxes of cloth. I suspect that I haven't overwhelmed myself with boxes of beads and wool (which I use for macrame) only because I actually do keep on making projects with them.
no subject
Date: 2011-02-18 09:06 am (UTC)Also *rueful* I know what you mean about collecting materials. I have four boxes worth of yarn; it's a good thing they manage to fit under my bed (just barely) so no one else actually notices :D
no subject
Date: 2011-02-18 09:22 am (UTC)I must get back to my last sewing project... though I don't because feeling guilty about not doing it makes me not want to do it...
no subject
Date: 2011-02-19 06:21 pm (UTC)I wish you the best of luck (and much fun!) in clearing out your stash *g*
I hear you on procrastinating from a knitting project though -- I have this one project I'm putting off doing so much, it's inspired me to pick up three new ones. (I console myself with the thought that, even if I'm not getting the first project done, at least I'm working on my stash)
Backups!
Date: 2011-02-17 11:21 pm (UTC)Yes, a backup system that isn't used isn't very useful. I realized a long time ago that any backup strategy that relied on me doing something regularly was doomed to failure. I have a cron job which uses rsnapshot to back up chosen directories to an external 500G drive. Actually, I do that on two different machines to two different drives. I don't have virtual machines to worry about, though. I also regularly (twice-daily) sync my working files between my laptop and my desktop but I probably wouldn't do that so often if I wasn't doing my work on both (laptop in the bus, desktop at home).
One of the things I like about rsnapshot is that the files are saved directly, one doesn't need special software to look at them, which is very useful for several reasons:
1. you don't have to remember esoteric commands in order to get at your files
2. you don't have to install extra software if one is accessing them from a new replacement system
3. you can use normal filesystem tools to find them, look at them and compare them
Re: Backups!
Date: 2011-02-18 09:23 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-03-03 10:45 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-03-03 05:22 pm (UTC)