On Tue, 28 Feb 2012 03:11:19 Hans Witvliet wrote:
On Mon, 2012-02-27 at 17:59 +1300, michael@actrix.gen.nz wrote:
If you are going to use rsynce consider that you may want to use some additional options to make the copy more faithful to the original...
rsync -a -H -A -X -S /from/ /to/
Why would the oo want to use rsync? It is a great tool for handling files,
For devices (and every horrible detail beneath it (soft raids, lvm, encryption, ...) the more appropiate tool remains "dd" It might me a waste of time, as it also copies empty parts of the file system though.
(see its manpage)
hw
If I was cloning a partition to a duplicate partition, a larger partition, or replacing a disk, I often do use dd or in some cases tools like gparted. So I agree, if you are truely "cloning a drive" as the topic heading implies then look at these kinds of tools. If you intend to just keep the dd image then, as jdd mentioned, it's size can be a problem. I guess you can pipe the image into gzip/bzip2/xz. If the destination partition is smaller, then rsync is an alternate option. If I want to minimise down time, I can use rsync to prepare the way by copying the live system to the destination. I'd then drop down to run level 1 and do a quick rsync to eliminating any problems due to copying it live. (After this I'd most likely also update the copy, and the original's grub, so that the copy it is a dual boot option.) If I was copying a really full partition into a relatively empty one I'd consider using rsync or similar so that the OS gets a chance to better allocate blocks in the less crowded partition. Michael -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org To contact the owner, e-mail: opensuse+owner@opensuse.org