Server crashed and RANCID somehow restored a two year old version

[john heasley]

Mon, Dec 29, 2003 at 09:56:34AM -0500, Elliott, Andrew:
> Hello,
> 
> I have been running RANCID for several years on several different
> networks.
> 
> I run RANCID on Solaris on an U5.  The box crashed last night and when
> it
> came back up RANCID somehow restored a copy of the very old (2+ yrs old)
> configs/directories/etc.
> 

rancid just uses CVS.  The only way it could have restored 2-yr old configs
would be if someone restored from tape, a very nasty log-filesystem bug, or
possibly (w/o having looked at the cvs source) an incorrect system clock
might do it.

It could also be that someone has purposely done it.  You can check for
other revisions (ie: newer than the one you're seeing) with cvs log; eg:

	cd /usr/local/rancid/groupfoo/configs
	cvs log router.foo.net | less

If the CVS revisions have multiple dots ('.') in them, you've ended-up with
a branch some how (again not something rancid does).  You can return to the
head with:

	cd /usr/local/rancid
	cvs update -AdP

> I am wondering how to go about getting the configs restored from two
> days ago?

To get configs from specific times/revs/etc, see the -p, -r, and -D options
of cvs checkout.  Also see the cvs FAQ noted in the rancid FAQ.