rsync - Feb 2009 - rsync differences between Fedora/Ubuntu?

Hello All,

(I'm only one step above a user, so would appreciate any technical 
answers thoroughly explained.  But if you're in a real rush, I could 
just forward your reply to a local wizard for translation.)

With the script below, I use rsync to mirror the /boot partition and the 
/ (without /boot) partition on to removable ATA/IDE hard drives. 
(Insertion/removal of mirror drives are during power down.)

This script works perfectly on my Fedora Core 5 system...  After backing 
up and umount-ing, the /mnt/newboot and /mnt/newroot are empty and the 
mirrored disks are exact bootable clones.

But corresponding commands in my Ubuntu Hardy (different hard disks, 
same platform otherwise) seem to send the copies to the /mnt/newroot 
DIRECTORY of the ORIGINAL source root partition (and probably NOT on to 
the mounted partition - I haven't checked if it is there).  After 
umount-ing and even power cycling, they're in the wrong place.

I've just done a complete system update on my Hardy.

This problem does NOT seem to happen to the /mnt/newboot (e.g. 
/dev/sdb1) stage.

I =am= taking into account differences like Ubuntu recognising it as 
/dev/sdb3 vs Fedora's /dev/hde3.

Any ideas?

Thanks very much,

Carl

Please Note:

Primary master is removable slot, booted Fedora or Ubuntu drives.
Primary slave is fixed (and empty) DVD drive.
Secondary master is removable slot, mirror of Fedora or Ubuntu drives.
Secondary slave is removable slot, usually empty.

Partitions/devices were identified by respective fdisk in both cases.

No error messages in mounting or unmounting mirror drives.  However, 
after unmounting, when trying to RE-mount /dev/sdb3 on to /mnt/newroot, 
system replies that the partition is busy and mounted to /

This is the script on my Fedora system.  I do these steps (modified) on 
the Ubuntu system...

 > #!/bin/bash
 > echo Mounting and backing up the boot area
 > echo x
 > mount /dev/hde1 /mnt/newboot
 > rsync -aHvx --delete /boot/ /mnt/newboot
 > umount /dev/hde1
 > echo Mounting and backing up the root area
 > echo x
 > mount /dev/hde3 /mnt/newroot
 > cd
 > rsync -aHvx --delete // /mnt/newroot
 > umount /dev/hde3

On Wed, 2009-02-04 at 12:29 +1300, Carl Turney wrote: 
> (I'm only one step above a user, so would appreciate any technical 
> answers thoroughly explained.  But if you're in a real rush, I could 
> just forward your reply to a local wizard for translation.)
> 
> With the script below, I use rsync to mirror the /boot partition and the 
> / (without /boot) partition on to removable ATA/IDE hard drives. 
> (Insertion/removal of mirror drives are during power down.)
> 
> This script works perfectly on my Fedora Core 5 system...  After backing 
> up and umount-ing, the /mnt/newboot and /mnt/newroot are empty and the 
> mirrored disks are exact bootable clones.
> 
> But corresponding commands in my Ubuntu Hardy (different hard disks, 
> same platform otherwise) seem to send the copies to the /mnt/newroot 
> DIRECTORY of the ORIGINAL source root partition (and probably NOT on to 
> the mounted partition - I haven't checked if it is there).  After 
> umount-ing and even power cycling, they're in the wrong place.
That suggests that /mnt/newroot isn't being mounted properly...
> No error messages in mounting or unmounting mirror drives.  However, 
> after unmounting, when trying to RE-mount /dev/sdb3 on to /mnt/newroot, 
> system replies that the partition is busy and mounted to /
Something really weird is going on there.  Could you please reboot the
machine, perform the following procedure:

1. cat /proc/mounts
2. Run your command to mount /mnt/newroot .
3. cat /proc/mounts
4. Run your command to unmount /mnt/newroot .
5. cat /proc/mounts

and post all the resulting output so I can see what is happening
to /dev/sdb3?

-- 
Matt