Create and restore symlinks based on /opt/.filetool.lst

symlinktool.sh is designed to improve the Persistence in TinyCore Linux problem by copying the files to a persistent disk, and then creating symlinks to those files in place of the originals. It can also store the files in a Git repository to easily track/revert changes.

Example:

ls -lah /etc/shadow
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 37 Nov 11 08:30 /etc/shadow -> /mnt/sda1/mydata/etc/shadow

The advantage is you can now edit persistent files without needing to back them up! All changes will automatically be saved to persistent storage.

Requirements

TinyCore Linux
Permanent disk storage (ex: /dev/sda1)
Ability to remaster TinyCore Linux

Getting Started

Run ./symlinktool.sh --create sda1 to backup your files to /mnt/sda1
Edit the /etc/init.d/tc-restore.sh to replace /usr/bin/filetool.sh with /usr/bin/symlinktool.sh
Add symlinktool.sh to /usr/bin

Of course, you'll need a remastered core.gz or corepure64.gz which contains the edited tc-restore.sh and symlinktool.sh

Usage

Usage: symlinktool.sh [option] <device>

Example:
  symlinktool.sh --create sda1

Options:
  (Note: options can not be combined)

  -c, --create   create a backup and store the files in <device>
  -r, --restore  restore symlinks pointing to backup files in <device>
  -u, --undo     undo changes and restore the backup files from <device>
  -h, --help     show this help message and exit
  -v, --version  show the application version and exit

How it works

Works similarly to filetool.sh, by reading include and exclude files from /opt/.filetool.lst and /opt/.xfiletool.lst, respectively
Reads the /etc/sysconfig/mydata file which is based on the boot code mydata
Reads the $DEVICE value obtained from tc-restore.sh
Generates a /mnt/$DEVICE/mydata.lst file which contains the list of files which were backed up
Doesn't create symlinks to directories, only files
On boot, it replaces the original files and creates symlinks to the backed up files in /mnt/sda1
After changing a file, --create can be used to track, version and even revert the changes

Advanced

Apply the patch found in tc-restore.sh.patch using patch -p1 < tc-restore.sh.patch

This will add a new bootcode symlinksrestore and call symlinktool.sh instead of filetool.sh, if set in the boot command line.

Status

This is currently in alpha status, so there may be some bugs (sorry!)

License

MIT License

on-prem/tinycore-symlinktool