backing up kmail and home

[gezza]

Has anyone sucsesfuly backed/archived 'home' or the '.local' folder?
2013.02. although it is also so for RC1.
Although I have archived/backed up '.local' it corrupts the system when replaced as does backing/archiving 'home'.
The only safe way I have found is to use 'mylivecd' to backup the entire system.
How should one archive the email system noadays?
Gezza

[kjpetrie]

In what way does it corrupt the system?

[ternor]

I use tar to back up my home folder each evening.  I have successfully restored backups on several occasions.  I don't know enough to back up only parts of home folder.  Some of the various parts probably interlink.  I would have thought it possible to back up the kmail folder separately.

My home folder is quite small though because I put some settings folders (such as .mozilla for example) in a different directory (which is also on a different partition) and create symlinks in my home folder.  [Placing .thunderbird in a separate directory causes Thunderbird to create strange links in the file panacea.dat, which I discovered much too late.  I can still open Thunderbird (which now only serves to store old emails) but I am stuck with the strange links.]

I back up the settings folders (except .mozilla) separately, also using tar.  The tar backups are stored on Wuala as well as the hard drive.

I copy the .mozilla folder to a USB stick with a name that includes the date.  I keep at least 7 backups on the USB stick.

[gezza]

Hi kjpetrie and all others,
I backed up '.local' on 32 bit and brought it back in RC1.
It corrupted the system so much that( nothing would work), I had to reinstall RC1.
But the reinstall did not work either.
Finally, I built a remastered disk 'iso' of 32 bit, installed that and then upgraded to RC1. that picked up the emails  and is working Fine.
I am not sure about backing up and replacing the home folder, or the '.local' folder.
Any thoughts on this matter gratefully received.
Gezza

[kjpetrie]

Possibly you need to back up all the hidden folders in home together to keep things co-ordinated. I've never tried to back up one dot folder on its own. I back up the whole of my home tree.

[menotu]

I archive my kmail2 folders and then use the Import feature and that works fine for me.

kmail2 can (or should) be able to import from various email applications (see two images)

[cyrwyn]

When I archive I copy my entire home folder to an external hard drive. I use a drag and drop method in Dolphin so that all subfolders will be copied; no complicated command line needed. There will always be some files or folders, such as sockets, that can't be copied, so click "Skip All" in the dialog box for those problem files. Now, I have a complete copy of my home folder at a particular point in time that would allow a restore of any part of it or the entire file tree. I would caution that in the case of a new install of a newer version of PCLOS, especially with a newer DE version, that the entire home folder not be copied over the default home folder, but only the directories of data files so that newer configurations won't be compromised.