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Linux is a family of open source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991 by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically packaged in a Linux distribution (or distro for short).

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Resume work from backup on another device? (self.linux)

submitted 3 months ago by unskilled5117 to c/linux@lemmy.ml

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I use 2 different computers in 2 different locations both running Universal Blue.

I was wondering if there is any way to create a backup system where i could backup Computer1 over the internet to Computer2 and continue work like nothing happened with all the user data and installed applications being there. The goal is to only need to transfer the user data/applications and no system data (that should be the same for both because of Ublue, right?), to keep the backup size small.

To be clear, i need help figuring out the backup part, not the transfering over the internet part.

If I were to backup the directories on Computer1, which store user data, with for example borgbackup, could I restore them on Computer2 and have a working system? Or would there be conflicts because of more low level stuff missing like applications and configs? Which directories would I need and which could be excluded?

Is there a better option? Any advice is appreciated!

I also came across btrfs snapshot capabilities and thought they could possibly used for this. But as far as I understand it, that would mean transferring the whole system and not only the data and applications. Am i missing something?

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[–] unskilled5117 1 points 3 months ago (1 children)

Thank you for the detailed response! Yes, the what data and how to not create conflicts has been troubling me the most.

I think I might first narrow it down with test VMs first, to skip the transfer part, before I actually use it “in production“.

[–] utopiah@lemmy.ml 1 points 3 months ago

Honestly a very imperfect alternatives but that's been sufficient for me for years is... NextCloud of documents.

There are few dozen documents I need regardless of the device, e.g national ID, billing template, but the vast VAST majority of my files I can get on my desktop... which is why I replied to you in depth rather than actually doing it. I even wrote some software for a "broader" view on resuming across devices including offline, namely https://git.benetou.fr/utopiah/offline-octopus as a network of NodeJS HTTP servers but ... same, that's more for the intellectual curiosity than a pragmatic need. So yes explore with VMs if you prefer but I'd argue remain pragmatic, i.e what you genuinely do need versus an "idealized" system that you don't actually use yet makes your workflow and setup more complex and less secure.