# What is the best way to back up the system when upgrading the packages ?



## Ievgen (Jun 6, 2012)

Hi everyone. 

I've recently rebuilt all the ports twice because I was trying to upgrade all my packages and got different conflicts around missing libraries and so on. I was mixing installation approaches (via ports/packages) that's why this is what I ended up with. I was trying to solve them but due to a lack of experience I decided to delete everything and install back from ports (not packages). 

In order not to repeat myself, and of course out of curiosity, could you advise me how to back up my system so in case of some troubles I could roll back to the previous state?

Use dump/restore of /usr partition? Or do I need something else to include (or exclude)?

Thanks.


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## Beastie (Jun 6, 2012)

I'd use dump(8)/restore(8), yes. And you probably want to run them on /var too if you want to keep the package database (/var/db/pkg).

One more thing, when you have many ports to upgrade, it's usually easier and less time-consuming to delete everything (e.g. /usr/local) and reinstall from scratch.


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## bbzz (Jun 6, 2012)

Thank god (well not god) for zfs snapshots.


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## nORKy (Jun 6, 2012)

Do you use zfs? *I*f yes, snapshots can help you.


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## Ievgen (Jun 6, 2012)

I don't, have not looked at this FS yet. 
Thanks for advises.


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