Backup and upgrade of running programs

[Volker Wysk]

Hi!

There's something that has troubled me for a long time. When you make a 
backup, or do an upgrade, what happens when the affected programs or data are 
still running or in use? Wouldn't this mean trouble?

There are a lot of programs for doing a backup or an upgrade, which let the 
user do just that. For instance, KDE Discover and the KDE Muon Package 
Manager. I'm not using those much, because I prefer command line. But it seems 
like they let you upgrade a (running) program by doing nothing more than a few 
clicks. Or what happens when you upgrade the KDE desktop, which is running at 
the same time? Or make a (full) backup with some graphical tool?

Wouldn't it leave the system, or the backup, in an inconsistent state?

For instance, I had broken Kmail because of a bug. I was able to restore it 
from a backup, by replacing some KMail-related files in .local and .config. 
When doing a (full) backup, I log out of KDE and shut down the Apache and 
Dovecot services. Then I use a virtual terminal. This way, I have been able to 
repair KMail.

Isn't it necessary to, in principle, shut down affected services, before doing 
a backup or an upgrade? Why isn't that recommended anywhere?

Bye,
Volker