# Cannot Backup my Development Instance (Fails)

**URL:** <https://meta.discourse.org/t/cannot-backup-my-development-instance-fails/92223>\
**Category:** Product Support\
**Created:** [July 13, 2018, 12:55am UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/cannot-backup-my-development-instance-fails/92223 "2018-07-13T00:55:19Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Showing post:** 7

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**Author:** ![pfaffman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/meta/user_avatar/meta.discourse.org/pfaffman/32/120154_2.png) [@pfaffman](https://meta.discourse.org/u/pfaffman)\
**Post date:** [July 13, 2018, 6:16am UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/cannot-backup-my-development-instance-fails/92223/7 "2018-07-13T06:16:14Z")

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Hmm. Seemed like a good idea at the time.

I can’t recall the details, but apparently I was having backups fail because something changed while the backup was happening. The only way that I can think of for files to change during a backup is for something to get moved to tombstone, or a file is being uploaded when tar starts?

I suspect that another solution (other than for luck during a backup) is to turn on read only during backup.

Having to install homebrew to make development work on the Mac does seem onerous. I have been using the gnu utilities for decades, so I didn’t think about them not being available on the Mac.

I guess the simple thing is to revert my change. Or we could test which version of tar is available.

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