My use-case is versioning application changes on server because sometimes I need to rollback previous version before update, or before configuration changes.
This is my list of content:
dasper@debian:/usr/share/otrs$
drwxr-xr-x 6 root root 4096 Sep 18 16:56 .
drwxr-xr-x 109 root root 4096 Sep 18 13:13 ..
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 21 May 9 11:06 ARCHIVE -> /var/lib/otrs/ARCHIVE
drwxr-xr-x 4 root root 4096 Sep 11 15:53 bin
-rwx------ 1 root root 212450 Sep 18 16:06 .etckeeper
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 1125 Jan 11 2019 .fetchmailrc.dist
drwx------ 8 root root 4096 Sep 18 16:06 .git
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 932 Sep 18 15:40 .gitignore
drwxr-xr-x 9 root root 4096 Sep 11 15:53 Kernel
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 104 Jan 12 2019 RELEASE
drwxr-xr-x 7 root root 4096 Sep 11 15:53 scripts
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 0 Sep 18 15:36 testfile.txt
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 13 May 9 11:06 var -> /var/lib/otrs
I was trying etckeeper to auto commit after package manager make some changes, but git will as defaulte create only empty folder var/ and ARCHIVE/.
I was trying submodules, but then i don't know about changes in symlink folders (git add .) and submodule content can't lead to symlink folder.
My biggest issue is how to store these folders in git and how to clone/checkout in same structure.
Solution was easy & clean, i hope :)
apt-get install etckeeper
Make directory for repository. This is mounted to other disk
mkdir /BACKUP
cd /BACKUP
Initialize git repo & set worktree to root /. Now i can tracking whole system changes, not only /etc
git init
git config --path core.worktree /
My .gitignore inside /BACKUP:
# Ignore everything ~ whitelist
*
# But descend into directories
!*/
# Add /usr/share/otrs/ - main directory
!/usr/share/otrs/**
# Add /var/lib/otrs - symlink # Add /usr/share/otrs/var -> /var/lib/otrs
!/var/lib/otrs/**
...
# Add myself
!/.gitignore
# Add etckeeper staff
!/etc/.etckeeper/**
Add new line at the end of /etc/etckeeper/etckeeper.conf with path to repository:
ETCKEEPER_DIR=/BACKUP
At the end, remove unused repo initialized by etckeeper after installation:
cd /etc
rm -rf .git
rm .gitignore
Now you can make first inital commit: etckeeper commit