On Sun, Mar 30, 2008 at 4:05 PM, Neil Bothwick <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > On Sun, 30 Mar 2008 15:48:54 -0400, Hal Martin wrote: > > > You cannot use tar unless you create an exclude file, as it will copy > > the contents of /dev and /sys, which means the entire contents of RAM, > > and anything that is currently being generated by your devices will be > > copied as well. > > > > Personally, I would use either tar or rsync to do this, however, in > > saying that, I have never actually done this with a live system. This is > > the tar command I use for copying inactive systems, and it works quite > > well. > > > > (cd /mnt/source; tar cfpl - .) | (cd /mnt/dest; tar xfp -) > > > > I assume you could just generate an exclude file, and include that in > > the first command > > You don't need an exclude file to avoid /dev and /sys because they are on > separate filesystems, so your use of -l takes care of this. > > Rsync may work, or it may complain that files have changed between > building the list and copying them and you'd need to use -x to do the > same as -l with tar. Either way, shut down as many services as possible > during the copy, particularly anything that uses databases. > > > -- > Neil Bothwick > > If you got the words it does not mean you got the knowledge. >
Now, correct me if I'm wrong, but I had read that if you don't copy the files in /dev, udev won't mount properly on the machine you're cloning to and all hell will break lose. Also, iirc, I believe I tarred a running machine (including /dev, excluding /sys) and the clone was successful. Any thoughts? -- Dan Cowsill http://www.danthehat.net -- gentoo-user@lists.gentoo.org mailing list
