TL;DR No archive format like tar, zip, ... but how would you theoretically represent a symlink in a manner that can be stored on the cloud and retrieved back to the system as a symlink?

Backstory

I heavily use symlinks to organise my media and even wrote an application that helps me do so (it's in Python and being rewritten in Rust). But I also use stuff like home-manager and nix which makes heavy use of symlinks.

My goal is to back up my media and /home to the cloud at regular intervals. There are services that cost just about 60-100€ yearly for limitless storage in the cloud. So having part of my library purely in the cloud and using terrabytes of space would cost less than a single 15TB HDD (500+€). To have a local backup, I'd even need a least a second one, which would put me at >1000€ - the equivalent of at least 10 years of cloud storage.

Options explored

rclone

It is pretty sweet as it supports mounting a cloud drive as a folder and has transparent encryption! However there are multiple open issues on uploading symlinks and I don't know Go. I wouldn't mind trying to learn it if I had an idea how to upload a symlink without following it (following symlinks breaks them).

git-annex etc.

git-annex and using a bare git repo with a remote worktree is great, but I don't need to make diffs of stuff and follow how things moved around, etc. I just need to replace backups with a view of what's there. Plus, storing all that history will probably take enormous amounts of space which is wasteful.

Ideas

store a blob of stat() call for every file

I'm not sure about this. The stat struct does contain information about the filetype (directory, hard link, symlink, ...), but my knowledge of linux internals is limited and maybe that's too complicated for this usecase.

a db of links

Instead of storing the links themselves, I store a DB (sqlite? CSV?) of links, upload that DB and use the DB to restore links after pull it back down. 🤔 Actually this might be the simplest thing to do, but maybe y'all have better ideas.

With fighting raging around Khan Younis and in the north of Gaza, a video has emerged on social media showing dozens of Palestinian men detained by Israel.

Electric Valley? Wire Canyon? Zap Way?

The Biden Administration on Thursday announced it is setting new policy that will allow it to seize patents for medicines developed with government funding if it believes their prices are too high.

The policy creates a roadmap for the government's so-called march-in rights, which have never been used before. They would allow the government to grant additional licenses to third parties for products developed using federal funds if the original patent holder does not make them available to the public on reasonable terms.

Under the draft roadmap, seen by Reuters, the government will consider factors including whether only a narrow set of patients can afford the drug, and whether drugmakers are exploiting a health or safety issue by hiking prices.

"We'll make it clear that when drug companies won't sell taxpayer funded drugs at reasonable prices, we will be prepared to allow other companies to provide those drugs for less," White House adviser Lael Brainard said on a press call.

Me U.S.A. Just country is fine, but if you like you can include city too.

Tesla Cybertruck's stiff structure, sharp design raise safety concerns - experts::The angular design of Tesla's Cybertruck has safety experts concerned that the electric pickup truck's stiff stainless-steel exoskeleton could hurt pedestrians and cyclists.

garbage.

Share your gift ideas, because I am a bit stumped.

Just seems like everything is "this company did this to their employees" and less about "this novel messaging protocol offers these measured pros and cons." Or similar

And yes, I could post things, but I'm referring to what hits the top, 12h.

Can anyone rec communities with less of a biz and politics and wfh vs in-office vibe?

I received a lot of flack in my other posts for providing this data in conjunction with his efforts to raise money. I separated this post in order to comply with the rules. https://www.reuters.com/technology/space/musks-spacex-approaches-investors-another-tender-offer-bloomberg-news-2023-12-06/

To verify the satellite data click the bottom left box that shows the fireball.

Idk how this news isn't mainstream. A loss of 1,000 satellites before the lifespan of 5 years is a major story.

The US representative at the UN, Robert Wood, has said that they wouldn’t support an immediate ceasefire.

"While the United States strongly supports a durable peace, in which both Israelis and Palestinians can live in peace and security, we do not support calls for an immediate ceasefire."

"This would only plant the seeds for the next war because Hamas has no desire to see a durable peace," he told the UN Security Council.

The US is one of the permanent members which has the right to veto resolution.

A Florida woman is facing felony charges for allegedly posing online as a homeschooler to sexually assault an underage boy.

22-year-old Alyssa Ann Zinger was arrested in Tampa on Nov. 24 and taken to jail; she faces two counts of lewd or lascivious battery and five counts of lewd or lascivious molestation. The police do not believe this was an isolated incident.

“It is disturbing and unsettling to see an adult take advantage of a child and prey on them,” Chief Lee Bercaw said in a statement. “Anyone who may have been a victim of Zinger’s, we encourage you to come forward. The Tampa Police Department will support you and ensure a predator like Zinger doesn’t cause you or others additional harm.”

Police say they were tipped off that Zinger allegedly had a relationship with a child between the ages of 12 and 15, and that following an investigation, they learned that she “communicated with the victim primarily through an online social media platform.”