Magento: backup options

Question

I have a question regarding the Magento options found under:

Admin Panel -> System -> Tools -> Backups

What is the difference between "System Backup", "Database and Media Backup", and "Database Backup".

I think I can figure out the difference between 2 and 3, 2 being that the files from uploaded images and similar uploaded content which is not stored in the database is also backed up, but what could be the difference betweeen 1 and 2?

Euripus

Answer 1

1. System Backup will create a .tgz of the entire source code and the database
2. Database and Media Backup will create a .tgz containing a database backup and the contents of the media directory
3. Database Backup will backup only the database

Rile

Thanks. Too bad there is not a Database and Media and Design Packages/Themes option. Instead, one has to do a full System Backup if one wants to backup themes as well (although, truly, one could of course just package the themes separately for distribution since the contents of the skin and app/design directories do not change during the course of magento's execution. – Euripus

Just to clarify, by 'Entire source code' does that include the media directory? – Zantos

EDIT: Just checked, the answer appears to be YES! – Zantos

I don't think "system backup" includes any database dumps ... I just looked through the downloaded archive but no sign of any sql files – Setula