Doubts regarding backup of site and gz extension

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1

I decided to create a backup of my site but am having some newbie doubts.

I have used the back up services of my host to backup my site on to the public_html folder of my remote ftp site. The file has got saved with a .gz extension.

I did not know how to open a gz file and tried googling for information. I saw two methods, one is to have an Alpha Zip plugin or download BitZipper 3009.Now I do not know which is the best method to follow.

Also, have I done the right thing by having the backup on the public_html folder? Or is it possible to have the back up on one of my folders on the local pc or a USB?

2

Any major archiving program will be able to decompress the gz file. Winzip, winrar, 7zip, etc. Or you can download gzip itself, the program used to create it.

You don’t want to leave backups in the public_html folder because then anyone can potentially download all your code. Put it somewhere that’s not in the web root, or download it to your computer and delete the backup after you make it.

3

Thanks a lot.
I have downloaded the backup files to my computer in one of the folders.

Once, we have the back up in a folder, is it just as simple as using the restore function to restore the site back in case of any mishap?

In my case, I seem to be learning things the hard way. With a lot of effort and help from the sitepoint books and my sitepoint friends, I had managed to put together a personal site with a dyanamic gallery page where I could upload, edit and delete picture using an admin page. I appear to have accidentally deleted some files because now my gallery page is giving an error with none of the photos displaying (I have seeked help for that in another thread).

If I had created a back up earlier of the entire site, would it have been as simple as deleting all the files in my site by going to my ftp client and then restoring the backup files?

4

I suddenly noticed something. I found this message in my cpanel.

Full Backup
A Full Backup will allow you to create an archive of all the files and configurations on your website. You can only use this to move your account to another server, or to keep a local copy of your files. You cannot restore Full Backups through your cPanel interface.

I had given the name of my backup destination as the Remote FTP Server and then downloaded it on to my PC as per your advice.

But it appears that I cannot use this to restore the backup files. How do I do that?

5

I don’t use cPanel so I don’t know what kind of backup options it has, maybe someone else will chime in

6

You upload the backup .gz to your serve, then extract it.

7

You upload the backup .gz to your serve, then extract it.

If that is the case, can one do without decompressing the file at all? I mean, if I have a file with a .gz extension in one of the folders of my PC, whenever required, I can just upload it to the server using my FTP client and then decompress it. Am I missing something here?

8

You’d need SSH access to run gunzip to decompress it on the server, since you can’t do that by FTP. What’s in the .gz file is often a .tar file, which is you’d have to unpack as well using tar.

9

So, I can download, perhaps, gzip or one of the archiving programs, decompress the files in the folder and have it on my PC to be used when necessary. Am I right here?

10

Maybe. Why don’t you unzip it and find out what’s inside?

11

I saw this in the gzip home page.

The gzip sources, written in C, are available here in various formats:

I am confused and do not know which one to download.

12

You don’t want the source code of the gzip program. Download an executable binary or just get winzip/winrar.

13

Thanks. While trying to decide whether I should download winzip or winrar, I came across 7-zip which appears to be free. Do I have any advantage if I have winzip or winrar instead of 7-zip?

14

Use whatever program you want. The gzip algorithm is free/open so almost any multi-format archiver knows how to uncompress those files.