guideline on creating a system clone?

For once in my life, I'm trying to think ahead a little.

Is there a guideline/FAQ or anything that covers how to make a cart/DB clone for testing purposes? I want to be prepared when the next release of ZC comes out.

Thanks.

https://www.zen-cart.com/tutorials/index.php?article=99
Same process, but in reverse.

OK, so it seems to simply be a procedure of:

1. copying the files
2. doing a backup/restore of the DB
3. updating the configure files.

Seems straightfoward enough.

On the subject of the cache, is the ZC cache a true cache? That is, can it be deleted or damaged, and ZC will automatically regenerate it?

I'm not sure what you're suggesting a "false" cache would be.

The /cache/ folder only stores information as it needs it. You can purge stuff from it anytime you like.

I'd envision that a 'false' cache would be one where cache files are only created when the 'master' file is changed.

Files deleted from cache would not be recreated unless the master file was edited again.

I'd guess that was what the OP wanted to be sure was not the case here.

There's some confusion as to what 'creates' the cache file - the action of creating or editing a page on the site, or the action of a user requesting to view a page.

I'll guess that it is the latter explanation in this case.

In Zen Cart 1.x, the /cache/ folder is for SQL caching, not page caching. And, by default, SQL caching is not done to files anyway.
The /cache/ folder is also used for holding things like debug logs, just because it's writable.
It's also used for holding session files if you've configured your store to not store session data in the database for some odd reason.
The only things you need to keep in that folder are the .htaccess and index.html, and that's just to prevent snooping.

That's all good information. I just didn't understand the purpose of the cache, and wanted to be sure it never contained any vital files that would bring down ZC if deleted.

Thanks.