What is paranoid mode?

Paranoid mode creates a backup of a local configuration file before Bcfg2 replaces the file. This allows for easier recovery by the local administrator.

How do I use it?

  1. In the Bcfg2 repository, put paranoid='true' in the info.xml file.
  2. On the client, create /var/cache/bcfg2 (in 1.0, you can specify an alternate path in the [paranoid] section of /etc/bcfg2).
  3. On the client, run bcfg2 with the -P option.

This will save a copy of the replaced file in /var/cache/bcfg2, but it'll be named as the path to the file with /'s replaced by _'s. For example, the old /etc/hosts will be named /var/cache/bcfg2/etc_hosts.

Extra configuration

Here is an example of how to use the extra paranoid features available in 1.0. For the following section in bcfg2.conf 

[paranoid]
path = /my/custom/backup/path
max_copies = 5

You will have the file backups store in /my/custom/backup/path. This will also keep the five most recent backups of files.