Gentoo Archives: gentoo-user

From: Alan McKinnon <alan.mckinnon@×××××.com>
To: gentoo-user@l.g.o
Subject: Re: [gentoo-user] OT: Fighting bit rot
Date: Mon, 07 Jan 2013 23:26:01
Message-Id: 20130108012016.2f02c68c@khamul.example.com
In Reply to: [gentoo-user] OT: Fighting bit rot by Florian Philipp
1 On Mon, 07 Jan 2013 21:11:35 +0100
2 Florian Philipp <lists@×××××××××××.net> wrote:
3
4 > Hi list!
5 >
6 > I have a use case where I am seriously concerned about bit rot [1]
7 > and I thought it might be a good idea to start looking for it in my
8 > own private stuff, too.
9 >
10 > Solving the problem is easy enough:
11 > - Record checksums and timestamps for each file
12 > - Check and update records via cronjob
13 > - If checksum changed but timestamp didn't, notify user
14 > - Let user restore from backup
15 >
16 > However, I haven't found any application in portage for this task.
17 > Now, the implementation is easy enough but I'm wondering why it
18 > hasn't been done. Or do I just look for the wrong thing? The only
19 > suitable thing seems to be app-admin/tripwire but that application
20 > also looks like overkill.
21 >
22 > [1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bit_rot
23 >
24 > Regards,
25 > Florian Philipp
26 >
27
28 You are using a very peculiar definition of bitrot.
29
30 "bits" do not "rot", they are not apples in a barrel. Bitrot usually
31 refers to code that goes unmaintained and no longer works in the system
32 it was installed. What definition are you using?
33
34 If you mean crummy code that goes unmaintained, then keep systems up to
35 date and report bugs.
36
37 If you mean disk file corruption, then doing it file by file is a
38 colossal waste of time IMNSHO. You likely have >1,000,000 files. Are
39 you really going to md5sum each one daily? Really?
40
41 This is a filesystem task, not a cronjab task. Use a filesystem that
42 does proper checksumming. ZFS does it, but that is of course somewhat
43 problematic on Linux. Check out the others, it will be something modern
44 you need, like ext4 maybe or btrfs
45
46 --
47 Alan McKinnon
48 alan.mckinnon@×××××.com

Replies

Subject Author
Re: [gentoo-user] OT: Fighting bit rot Florian Philipp <lists@×××××××××××.net>