What problem are you trying to solve? Please think about that, and about your backup strategy, before you decide on any specific tools.
For example, here are several scenarios that I guard against in my backup strategy:
- Accidentally delete a file, I want to recover it quickly (snapshots);
- Entire drive goes kablooie, I want my system to continue running without downtime (RAID)
- User data drive goes kablooie, I want to recover (many many options)
- Root drive goes kablooie, I want to recover (baremetal recovery tools)
- House burns down or computer is damaged/stolen (offsite backups)
There are two usability tweaks that I would find it hard to live without: (1) red prompt on last-command failure, and (2) highlight what I type, dehighlight output:
Reason for 1 is obvious, 2 is more subtle: it helps my eye scan scrollback and identify what I’ve typed, which is what I’m scanning for 90% of the time.
Implementations vary, here’s how I do it in zsh:
PS1='%(?.%K{cyan}%F{white}.%B%K{red}%F{white})XX%b%k%f %(?.%F{cyan}.%F{red})yyy%k%b%F{yellow}%(!.#.$)%f '. Duplication is evil, but AFAIK necessary because the conditional (error check) is%(?and I highlight both parts of my two-part prompt. Suggestions welcome for removing the duplication.zle_highlight=("default:fg=white")(on a Solarized Dark term, where the default fg color is light gray. Adjust to fit your needs).