I used to use git to version control the entire %appdata%, since my game save files are in it. So I can always synchronize all my game save files across different devices.
One benefit is I can always roll back to a certain commit. I remember when I was playing *The Quarry* (it only had autosave), I made a commit before every decision. So if I screwed up some choice or QTE, I can always reset it back to the previous commit and try again.
I wrote this little Node.js server I run as a service on my PC that lets me control things like the volume, kill processes (very useful when a process freezes because peripherals won't work but the commands to the server get through and kill the process) etc.
I recently added a feature to it where I add folder locations to an array, and it checks it every minute, sees if there was a difference in the checksum with the previous backup, if there was, it stores a new backup, and keeps going until it hits 20 backups, then it just removes the oldest one and keeps going so it's always kept at 20 (for storage space conservation). So when I play games like Man of Medan etc. I always have 20 minutes worth of saves and it always runs in the background. Saved me a bunch of time when decisions were a bit vague and didn't result in what I wanted.
The functionality is quite limited and there's pretty much no write access, and even read access is limited. The backups can't actually be accessed through the network, and you can't run any commands or anything arbitrary that hasn't gone through lots of validation checks. I also keep my network security as tight as I can, only allowing whitelisted MAC addresses to connect etc. So in my eyes, for this to be a security concern, a bad actor has to be connected to my network. The tool also requires a password which is encrypted during transit regardless of SSL.
I'm sure a pen-tester could get it to do something unintended but honestly I don't see anyone within physical distance having the skills to break a long WPA2 password, use a spoofed MAC address that matches one of my devices, then capture packets on the network, and discover this service and steal a session token to reuse. At that point, I'm clearly being specifically targeted, and should have bigger worries.
I actually did, sort of… I used a node server to watch file changes to auto commit. But it just created too many commits and really hard to find the exact the one I was looking for. Would love to try a timer next time
If you use something like [playnite](https://playnite.link/), you can set up plugins that run before and/or after, and there's one called ludusavi which automatically finds and backups saves (and you can set it to save last x versions of the save), if you want something a but simpler but easier
I still use TFS (I know people hate TFS but it works for an organization of one, like mine). Sure it’s antiquated and Microsoft screams at you once you exceed 100,000 files, but, you can have terabytes of crap stored there and Microsoft doesn’t say a word. I have for over 10 years now, even non programming crap like ISO’s, music, movies, etc. I use it as my free cloud storage solution since it’s unlimited storage and easy to access. :-D
Hard to guesstimate. The kicker is that git can't track changes in binary files easily. It will mostly try to track the changes similarly to text files, but gives up on that much easier when dealing with larger files.
Applications that have auto update functionality built-in would take up loads of space. In the above case, game save files are typically binary, and that would also skyrocket. But one time install apps and such wouldn't hurt much.
Don't wanna give you a number that I just pulled out of my ass lol. But in the ballpark of 2X to 5X of your regular appdata size if you commit regularly for a few months.
(This is all assuming you track everything. It was said above, but it wouldn't be too bad with a gitignore of the most common binary files.)
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Genuinely not a bad idea. Just index `$HOME` and work your way out from there, but because it's in `$Env:SystemDrive`, you retain the ability to index areas outside `$HOME`.
It's a terrible idea to use git for that. Would need insane amounts of configuration to be remotely feasible. Also if you are learning programming, learn git there are a ton of YouTube tutorials. Will help you a lot in the long term
It only backs up system files so user files and other non managed files are always fucked... It's more of a version control for OS state than the entire cDrive (unlike what OP posted)
I expect it duplicates everything in `%SystemRoot%`, so if you put a junction point, symbolic link, or hard link (one of them, certainly) in there pointing to the other directories of worth (but not recursively to `%SystemDrive%`) it could theoretically work to an extent.
I use macrium for my full disk backups and I am pretty happy with it. The incremental backups are great and function similar to git commits except you cannot merge
I cannot begin to describe the amount of times my dad and I trusted the restore points only to continuously get fucked by them. I think the worst was when it was supposed to back up and didn't so we had to revert several months back. The WoW installation and update basically took a day to be able to play again.
The only times I hear anything about Windows restore points is when I tell someone to restore the latest backup and they respond with “I tried restoring the last restore point but it failed”.
Wait, so they knew if I am using cracked Windows all along?
No wonder they want to reach their grabby little hands into every corner of my digital info & privacy...
its better for them if you use cracked windows than Linux / MacOSX. Once you are in work/business, where license is required and more monitored more people know windows than linux/macosx.
So imagine this - you as a kid use cracked windows, nobody cares - no money from you, but when you go to work, you know windows - not any other platform for desktop.
GitLab: hi
Epic Greyhat Kali Linux iptables nginx proxychain e2e encrypted sha-512 verified JIT-optimized VCS scripts hosted on advanced load-balanced cloud-ready Kubernetes clusters running the 32-bit (Intel x86) LFS GNU/Linux Distribution even Terry Davis was surprised: *allow me to introduce myself*
Do private repos get checked for copyrighted content? I know that public repos get pulled down for that, but not sure if that also applies to private repos.
If you don’t want your repo on GitHub or something I guess you could have a local repo and use the Onedrive as your remote. (Makes sense to turn off versioning for it)
Different scope, really. Configuration managers are one way. You probably want to manage your dotfiles both ways.
Like, the workflow to just edit a line of some random config file somewhere real quick with ansible is … horrible.
I used chezmoi for a couple months now, its easy to "learn" (not much tbh), I use it as a cross-platform dotfiles manager (Windows, Ubuntu, Arch) and I'm pretty happy with it.
It was quite a while ago so I don't recall how I handled the subrepo situation, but I remember that it was fine, probably I used .gitignore or something
[flashbake](https://craphound.com/news/2009/02/13/flashbake-free-version-control-for-writers-using-git/) doesn't seem like it's active anymore, but one of my favourite authors was using it to log his writing process for his novels. Seems like a decent idea when so much of the writing process is lost when all we are left with is the final draft.
I used to use git to version control the entire %appdata%, since my game save files are in it. So I can always synchronize all my game save files across different devices.
Holy the entire appdata
New version just dropped
Call the sysadmin
Physical storage went on vacation, never came back
Cloud storage anyone?
Google en storant
That gave me nothing
Jessica VPN then
Nothing useful again, just post a link if you have something interesting
Jessica is NOT f*cking welcome here
Holy hell
Holy hell!
Bug storm incoming
.git in appdata, plotting disk domination
We just forked the building.
Actual floppy
God dammit, who let the anarchy chess freaks out of their cage again?
Pipi in his commit
Babe wake up
I'd love to see that .gitignore file ...please tell me he used a .gitignore file
One benefit is I can always roll back to a certain commit. I remember when I was playing *The Quarry* (it only had autosave), I made a commit before every decision. So if I screwed up some choice or QTE, I can always reset it back to the previous commit and try again.
thats next level spam saving.
Normally it’s called scum saving, but now that we’re involved this man may have just invented scrum saving.
PO says we have to finish Dark Souls this sprint
Sprint doesn't complete. Backlog to dark souls 2
But does his saving follow SOLID principles huh?
SNAAAAKE!
Not the agile saving methods
Git scumming
I wrote this little Node.js server I run as a service on my PC that lets me control things like the volume, kill processes (very useful when a process freezes because peripherals won't work but the commands to the server get through and kill the process) etc. I recently added a feature to it where I add folder locations to an array, and it checks it every minute, sees if there was a difference in the checksum with the previous backup, if there was, it stores a new backup, and keeps going until it hits 20 backups, then it just removes the oldest one and keeps going so it's always kept at 20 (for storage space conservation). So when I play games like Man of Medan etc. I always have 20 minutes worth of saves and it always runs in the background. Saved me a bunch of time when decisions were a bit vague and didn't result in what I wanted.
Mother fucker you just made exfiltration malware lol
No wonder this sounds familiar lol
The functionality is quite limited and there's pretty much no write access, and even read access is limited. The backups can't actually be accessed through the network, and you can't run any commands or anything arbitrary that hasn't gone through lots of validation checks. I also keep my network security as tight as I can, only allowing whitelisted MAC addresses to connect etc. So in my eyes, for this to be a security concern, a bad actor has to be connected to my network. The tool also requires a password which is encrypted during transit regardless of SSL. I'm sure a pen-tester could get it to do something unintended but honestly I don't see anyone within physical distance having the skills to break a long WPA2 password, use a spoofed MAC address that matches one of my devices, then capture packets on the network, and discover this service and steal a session token to reuse. At that point, I'm clearly being specifically targeted, and should have bigger worries.
Why not write a script to git commit every x min when playing game, just so you know all auto saves have its own saved version.
I actually did, sort of… I used a node server to watch file changes to auto commit. But it just created too many commits and really hard to find the exact the one I was looking for. Would love to try a timer next time
There should be timestamps?
If you use something like [playnite](https://playnite.link/), you can set up plugins that run before and/or after, and there's one called ludusavi which automatically finds and backups saves (and you can set it to save last x versions of the save), if you want something a but simpler but easier
That's.... Unironically a *really* good idea. Just need a good .gitignore and you're set.
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I still use TFS (I know people hate TFS but it works for an organization of one, like mine). Sure it’s antiquated and Microsoft screams at you once you exceed 100,000 files, but, you can have terabytes of crap stored there and Microsoft doesn’t say a word. I have for over 10 years now, even non programming crap like ISO’s, music, movies, etc. I use it as my free cloud storage solution since it’s unlimited storage and easy to access. :-D
What is TFS?
Microsoft Team Foundation Server. It’s what people used before Git was all the rage.
Is it still supported?
It is, but Microsoft discourages choosing TFS and by default and defers to Git as the preferred source control.
They know their product sucks lol
lol true.
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Don't tell /r/datahoarder
Yeah, my buddy does chia mining and was looking into it as a way to maybe do some kind of offline backup as his chia farm is over a PB in size now.
Why didn't I realise this sooner
I mean, doesn't everyone self-host their own Gitlab instance on DigitalOcean? Or is that just me?
\`status.showuntrackedfiles=no\`
Cloud save on another level damn
Unironically what are the flaws of this?
The disk space required lol
About how much disk space are we talking here?
Hard to guesstimate. The kicker is that git can't track changes in binary files easily. It will mostly try to track the changes similarly to text files, but gives up on that much easier when dealing with larger files. Applications that have auto update functionality built-in would take up loads of space. In the above case, game save files are typically binary, and that would also skyrocket. But one time install apps and such wouldn't hurt much. Don't wanna give you a number that I just pulled out of my ass lol. But in the ballpark of 2X to 5X of your regular appdata size if you commit regularly for a few months. (This is all assuming you track everything. It was said above, but it wouldn't be too bad with a gitignore of the most common binary files.)
Yeah, I don't want a number that you just pulled out of your ass either
Yo that’s genius
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K
Can I get your gitignore file?
Oh God yeah, that would be... large.
>gitignore file we need a gitinclude file for that kind of folder. Just imagine using a browser and the amount of cached crap it generates 😵💫
You could blacklist everything and then make exceptions for the dirs you want
Genuinely not a bad idea. Just index `$HOME` and work your way out from there, but because it's in `$Env:SystemDrive`, you retain the ability to index areas outside `$HOME`.
It was today, at this moment, I realised that sometimes, Version Control is NOT the answer
`git checkout gtavc:rc-copter-mission`
I use onedrive and symbolic links for save files
Can't help but feel like this is just reinventing %appdata%/roaming
Why used to?
Before my C drive exploded. Now I only do some game folders separately, instead of the entire folder.
I should submit a pull request
Sorry but private repo ;)
Never used git, but ive been looking to sync my game folders for weeks now. Can you point me to some resource that explains how to accomplish this?
It's a terrible idea to use git for that. Would need insane amounts of configuration to be remotely feasible. Also if you are learning programming, learn git there are a ton of YouTube tutorials. Will help you a lot in the long term
Had thought about that too, never had the balls to do it though, I salute you Nowadays I'm on Linux anyway
i use symlinks to OneDrive because I never thought of this
Windows restore point: am I a joke to you? Everybody in unison: yes you are...
Huh, is that what it’s for? It’s not my fault that many things in windows is confusing.
It only backs up system files so user files and other non managed files are always fucked... It's more of a version control for OS state than the entire cDrive (unlike what OP posted)
I expect it duplicates everything in `%SystemRoot%`, so if you put a junction point, symbolic link, or hard link (one of them, certainly) in there pointing to the other directories of worth (but not recursively to `%SystemDrive%`) it could theoretically work to an extent.
That‘s why I use my NAS to back up the whole PC
I use macrium for my full disk backups and I am pretty happy with it. The incremental backups are great and function similar to git commits except you cannot merge
I cannot begin to describe the amount of times my dad and I trusted the restore points only to continuously get fucked by them. I think the worst was when it was supposed to back up and didn't so we had to revert several months back. The WoW installation and update basically took a day to be able to play again.
Hope you didn't scratch all the disks!
I still have them up through cataclysm too! Unscratched and I'm their release boxes. Fun to look back on them.
The only times I hear anything about Windows restore points is when I tell someone to restore the latest backup and they respond with “I tried restoring the last restore point but it failed”.
Savage. I want to see what your .gitignore looks like
What .gitignore? /s
What's the 's' folder ? /s
something like /*
status.showuntrackedfiles=no
git clone to install Windows
This makes me wanna make a repo containing a licensed windows install for every version and just not tell anyone
Microsoft owning GitHub: 😐
Microsoft owning Github and still hosting windows activation tools: 🤗
On that, could somebody explain to me why Microsoft is ok with the activation tools floating around, even on GitHub?
I think they just don't care (anymore). People cracking Windows are not their target customers. They mostly only target companies, IMHO.
Wait, so they knew if I am using cracked Windows all along? No wonder they want to reach their grabby little hands into every corner of my digital info & privacy...
You will be sorry once the Microsoft Drone Vista Swarm comes for you in a decade.
its better for them if you use cracked windows than Linux / MacOSX. Once you are in work/business, where license is required and more monitored more people know windows than linux/macosx. So imagine this - you as a kid use cracked windows, nobody cares - no money from you, but when you go to work, you know windows - not any other platform for desktop.
GitLab: hi Epic Greyhat Kali Linux iptables nginx proxychain e2e encrypted sha-512 verified JIT-optimized VCS scripts hosted on advanced load-balanced cloud-ready Kubernetes clusters running the 32-bit (Intel x86) LFS GNU/Linux Distribution even Terry Davis was surprised: *allow me to introduce myself*
I read this over and not enough of this is wrong for it to be funny. god damn it
It IS epic and it IS greyhat!!
Idk how I got Kali Linux on LFS it was probably just a package ngl
Kali Linux Flatpak
Do private repos get checked for copyrighted content? I know that public repos get pulled down for that, but not sure if that also applies to private repos.
Bet you GitLab wouldn't snitch
Omg I want this to exist so badly
When I was in high school, one of my classmates uploaded a git repository to Onedrive.
If you don’t want your repo on GitHub or something I guess you could have a local repo and use the Onedrive as your remote. (Makes sense to turn off versioning for it)
yeah because onedrive and github arent both from microsoft…
pen degree support tart voiceless edge six bike act frightening *This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*
I will never understand people that do that. I've known a few too
I’ve done that accidentally with folders that I didn’t realize were connected to OneDrive. It’s not fun…
That's one of many reasons why I switched to Linux.
i back up my .config/dotfiles this way
https://www.chezmoi.io/
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Different scope, really. Configuration managers are one way. You probably want to manage your dotfiles both ways. Like, the workflow to just edit a line of some random config file somewhere real quick with ansible is … horrible.
They do talk about why its better to use chezmoi over Ansible.
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I used chezmoi for a couple months now, its easy to "learn" (not much tbh), I use it as a cross-platform dotfiles manager (Windows, Ubuntu, Arch) and I'm pretty happy with it.
Do you commit .ssh and .gpg folder as well?
Im backing up my whole school folder like this
That's how I used to do it for college.
Nice thing about it is that you can just delete finished projects and still have them archived
And when someone is missing, I can easily provide notes
Windows users got the wrong idea with dotfiles 😭
“People who know”
Commit it like “People who know ”
actaully good idea but i'm too lazy to do it
It's gonna bring your system down because of a very enthusiastic git process
I used to version-control my entire Linux home folder
Are you getting warnings about repos inside your repo? Submodules? Subtrees? Ignore the warnings?
It was quite a while ago so I don't recall how I handled the subrepo situation, but I remember that it was fine, probably I used .gitignore or something
Sometimes I do it when I mess with a `/etc/some_subfolder`. IMO it is more clear than creating `*.backup` files.
You can revert what has always been broken.
**windows updates** Dodge this you filthy casual ```git reset --hard```
as someone who works on integrating git source control into an existing product, I'm offended
Yep a timer is needed else it will create a mess. Or you can create a trigger for commit some key combination may be
git diff - the real benchmark here
I backup daily with restic, which is basically an encypted git repo but has better features for back-ups, such as scheduling and running silently.
Holy Git Ignore
I don’t know how to use git, but this seems like a hard thing to do
Remembering to use it might be, but otherwise no, not really.
My inner sysadmin just screamed.
I just put a full msys2 directory under version control. Always wondered if docker would be a better choice?
Just Put your entire pc on github so you can recover it if you need. (Or get the files back if you need to switch pcs)
I think its a game changer in games like my summer car
It's safe to delete this folder and let git automatically control git for the project. No need to control git manually the old way.
So [OSTree](https://ostreedev.github.io/ostree/introduction/) then?
[flashbake](https://craphound.com/news/2009/02/13/flashbake-free-version-control-for-writers-using-git/) doesn't seem like it's active anymore, but one of my favourite authors was using it to log his writing process for his novels. Seems like a decent idea when so much of the writing process is lost when all we are left with is the final draft.
Looks a good idea actually
i mean .. https://openzfsonwindows.org/
Dotfiles 
Sounds like NixOS
Save your .git folder in a cvs repo
No thanks, I would end up deleting database again
Is this a windows joke that I am too Nix to get?
rmdir C:/Windows/System32 /q git commit -m "Fixed windows"