Galder’s Passionate Blog

Back In Time is the name of linux tool that tries to mimic what Time Machine does for Mac. It periodically makes backups of your entire hard drive based on a set of rules such as periodicity, files to backup…etc. Although I’m still using script based backups, I welcome the creation of such tools that make it easier for average Fedora/Ubuntu/etc users to do full backups.

However, the fact that by default Back In Time excludes hidden files from being backed up is worrying (I share John Cottier’s view in https://answers.launchpad.net/backintime/+question/68229). It’s at this moment that I start to wonder who such tool is directed at. I agree that power users might modify files such as .ssh/config, .emacs, or .bash_profile and such user would most likely spot such setting and change it. However, an average user might not know that his/her Firefox bookmarks are stored in a folder called .mozilla or that his/her Thunderbird email is stored under a folder called .thunderbird right under the home folder.

By the way, Time Machine does store hidden folder/files by default.