5. Learn to Back-Up

Step Five: Learn to Back-Up

Up until now we've had no worries erasing our "scratch" computer and starting again. Once we start developing our own work though, we'll want to back-up.

There are many approaches to backing-up, but I've settled on a simple one that might work for you. Ubuntu creates a "Documents" folder in each user's home directory. I simply copy that folder to CD or a thumb drive from time to time. In a production environment (coding for money) I'd be sure to save my code every day.

To organize my data within "Documents" I create a few more folders. One called "Attic" contains just one-off files and little files I might need again. Then I create a "Work" folder than contains snaphots of my projects. Beneath "Work" might be "Work.20031212", a folder containing my work for December 12, 2003. Having multiple snapshots lets me look back. It is a discount form of revision control.

You can be as fancy or a simple as you like, and over time you might learn to automate back-ups, etc. and at some point you will want real revision control.

(For other approaches, Google "ubuntu howto back-up" etc.)

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