[ale] How could I have avoided this?

[brian at polibyte.com (Brian Pitts)]

George Allen wrote:
> I usually do something like:
> 
> mv .mozilla .mozilla~
> 
> but... since I've been playing with 'git' lately, one could do:
> 
> cd .mozilla
> git init
> git add *
> git commit -a -m "about to hack this dir to pieces... standby for disaster"
> git branch test
> git checkout test
> <edit edit edit>
> <frustration>
> rm -rf *
> git branch master
> <yay, all the old files are back>
> git branch test
> <all gone - back to frustration>
> 
> etc....
> Also been learning mercurial lately - too bad neither really tracks file 
> permissions - so can't do something like check in your /etc/ dir.... without 
> potential security problems on checkout
> 
> -George
>

Another good idea is to use automate making snapshots for your home 
directory, much like the new Mac OS does with Time Machine[1]. Two of 
the programs commonly mentioned on the list for this are rsnapshot and 
dirvish.

If you do this, when Firefox fails you simply delete it's current 
directory and restore the most recent snapshot. Because the "rsync+hard 
link" backup approach has so little overhead this could be very recent.

-Brian

[1] 
http://chucker.mystfans.com/2006/08/23/time-machine-compared-to%E2%80%A6-rsnapshot.entry