On Tue, 28 Feb 2012 00:03:07 +1300 michael@actrix.gen.nz wrote:

On Mon, 27 Feb 2012 22:55:56 Carl Hartung wrote:

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On Mon, 27 Feb 2012 17:59:09 +1300 michael@actrix.gen.nz wrote:

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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/

See the man page.

Before going to 12.1 I used rsync to duplicate / to a spare partition (I always leave make two OS partitions on every drive - can't have too many now that disk is cheap). I then manually edited /etc/fstab /boot/grub/menu.1st to make sure it would boot, that way I could boot the upgraded 12.1 or the old 11.4. Note this was in addition to offline backups (also using rsync). If you brought a machine down to runlevel 1 it would be reasonably safe to just rsync the live machine.

Hi Michael,

Please don't 'top post' as reading (and posting) 'top to bottom' is the convention on this list.

It's been my experience that the '-a' flag creates totally "faithful" archives (a.k.a. backups,) in the use case presented by the OP.

What scenarios do you have in mind where the additional flags come into play? Is it 'normal' to find hard links in one's '/' or '/home' partitions? Ditto ACLs or extended attributes?

Clearly the additional flags you've recommended have a purpose. But I have yet to encounter a failed restoration from the archives I've been creating. Have I just been lucky? ;-) Are there any potential drawbacks?

TIA & regards,

Omitting any of the extra flags isn't likely to cause a system to fail in any major way.

But if ls -l /bin /usr/bin you will see that some files are hard linked. Losing the association will burn a little space. As long as the package manager restores links when updating a package all will be well. I'd just rather avoid any confusion in the mean time because I sometimes have to manually hack my system (rare these days admittedly).

As for ACL's or extended attributes, my main concern is that I'm not really aware whether any packages are using them or not. I preserve them just in case. The mount options for / normally include user_xattr,acl, so better safe than sorry.

If anything has created a 4GB sparse file, I don't want to lose that space when I copy it (/ is only 20GB) - so I preserve sparse files.

I want a faithful copy to be sure nothing will mysteriously or silently fail on me. But you are right, I bet almost all commonly used things will work just fine - but for a small cost I avoid making the bet.

Sorry about breaking the conventions for the list - thanks for bringing to my attention.

Thank you very much for bringing this to my attention! Sure enough, /etc/fstab shows acl & user_xattr on both / and /home :-) It is certainly worth investing a couple of extra keystrokes, as you've said. No need to apologize for something that you weren't aware of. Much appreciated! Carl -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org To contact the owner, e-mail: opensuse+owner@opensuse.org

Le 27/02/2012 15:11, Hans Witvliet a écrit :

It might me a waste of time, as it also copies empty parts of the file system though.

yes, and waste of space jdd -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org To contact the owner, e-mail: opensuse+owner@opensuse.org

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

On Tue, 2012-02-28 at 08:54 +1300, michael@actrix.gen.nz wrote:

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

Indeed, if you choose wisely you have have the best of both worlds. For instance, _if_ you have separate logical volumes, you can use either tool on them. dd: if you want to clone just a part. or a part you cannot decypher. rsync if you can access the file system. And dd gives you access before, in between and after the partitions... hw -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org To contact the owner, e-mail: opensuse+owner@opensuse.org

David C. Rankin said the following on 02/27/2012 07:53 PM:

and if it is just a copy of 'files' on a partition or drive-to-drive (on the local machine) without the MBR or partition boundary information, good 'ole:

cp -a

works just fine.

Well maybe. You might want to add a recursion and that still wont copy hidden files. You could run multiple commands with cp -ra ${SRC}/* ${DST} cp -ra ${SRC}/.[^.]* ${DST} or you could turn on the globbing of hidden files: • Set shopt dotglob option to enable. (shopt -s dotglob) • Copy hidden files and folder. • Set shopt dotglob option to disable. See the man page for BASH for details (that's RTFM or 'go google') -- Opportunity is missed by most people because it is dressed in overalls and looks like work. Thomas A. Edison -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org To contact the owner, e-mail: opensuse+owner@opensuse.org