You can backup your config files before editing them, like this:

cp configbeingedited.conf configbeingedited.conf__orig_datestring

This way, when things break or don’t function how you like, you can easily copy the original config file back into position, restoring the original functionality.

  • zlatko
    3·
    1 year ago

    I’ve been meaning to get the ansible thing. Not for my home computers, my dotfiles are on GitHub, SSH keys offline, stuff backed up. But I always think that if my poor hetzner box dies, I’ll have a lot of fun getting it all back up :/

    • astral_avocado
      2·
      1 year ago

      😂 Honestly Ansible can be a little obtuse at times, I’m having a much better time with having all my stuff defined in Docker and deployed via docker-compose or Terraform for non-self-hosted stuff. Ansible can be a lot of effort but I can also see it being better in the long run.

      Then there’s the NixOS people… people swear by that. I haven’t dived into that whole world yet.

      • zlatko
        2·
        1 year ago

        Yeah NixOS is my other alternative, but I think that rabbit hole is much more deep than the Ansible one :)

        I also manage my few self-hosted things and play-things with docker-compose on my box, but who manages docker-compose files? :) And nginx config, and network-related stuff etc etc. I am too lazy but I guess I will have to bite the bullet and after 20 years of manually doing it all and backing up raw and praying, actually figuring out the next level.