Finding a good home for backups

[allonhadaya]

The backup script in template/ubuntu-16.04/backup.sh uses /tmp/backups as the destination of backup files (as well as intermediate files).

BACKUP_DIR=/tmp/backups

On some distros /tmp is cleared either on boot or by regular cron jobs: http://serverfault.com/questions/377348/when-does-tmp-get-cleared

On other systems /tmp is backed by RAM and may be lost on crashes.

This is not the default behaviour on Ubuntu, but should a different directory be chosen in case this script is used on a distro that does clear tmp OR if a user happens to configure their Ubuntu server to clear tmp?

Perhaps this is actually a philosophical point: backups are not temporary by definition. They are persistent (at least for the duration of the retention policy).

How about /root/backups? Is there an even better option? Is /tmp actually the right place; why?

I'm curious to hear your thoughts!

[voidmain]

I wrote it this way because the backup.sh script is just an example. Also, I put at the bottom of the script a commented out line that would copy the files offsite. My thought was to drop them in /tmp, copy them offsite, and then potentially clear /tmp or let it be cleared whenever by whoever. I'm up for changing that behavior in the script though.

[allonhadaya]

Cool, the choice definitely makes sense in the context of copying the backup files elsewhere. What do you think of #4?

[voidmain]

Looks good. I merged it into master as c887dae. Thanks for the update.