Re: [gentoo-user] OT: Fighting bit rot

[Volker Armin Hemmann <volkerarmin@googlemail.com>]

Am Dienstag, 8. Januar 2013, 08:27:51 schrieb Florian Philipp:
> Am 08.01.2013 00:20, schrieb Alan McKinnon:
> > On Mon, 07 Jan 2013 21:11:35 +0100
> > 
> > Florian Philipp <lists@binarywings.net> wrote:
> >> Hi list!
> >> 
> >> I have a use case where I am seriously concerned about bit rot [1]
> >> and I thought it might be a good idea to start looking for it in my
> >> own private stuff, too.
> 
> [...]
> 
> >> [1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bit_rot
> >> 
> >> Regards,
> >> Florian Philipp
> > 
> > You are using a very peculiar definition of bitrot.
> > 
> > "bits" do not "rot", they are not apples in a barrel. Bitrot usually
> > refers to code that goes unmaintained and no longer works in the system
> > it was installed. What definition are you using?
> 
> That's why I referred to wikipedia, not the jargon file ;-)
> 
> The definition that I thought about was decay of storage media,
> especially hard disks. I'm not aware of another commonly used name for
> that effect. Disk rot seems to apply only to optical media.
> 
> > If you mean crummy code that goes unmaintained, then keep systems up to
> > date and report bugs.
> > 
> > If you mean disk file corruption, then doing it file by file is a
> > colossal waste of time IMNSHO. You likely have >1,000,000 files. Are
> > you really going to md5sum each one daily? Really?
> 
> Well, not daily but often enough that I likely still have a valid copy
> as a backup.

and who guarantees that the backup is the correct file?

btw, the solution is zfs and weekly scrub runs.

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