I have restored my home directory in the past using rsync but never the entire system. If I rsync / (on my usb drive containing the backup) to / on the computer with a fresh install of the OS, what problems will I run into? What about links? I am presently triple booting 3 linux distros and want to delete one to install something else. The distro I'm installing will be on 3 partitions (/, /boot, and /home). Will what I'm proposing populate the directories in these partitions or will it dump everything into /? I realize that I probably be better off creating a snapshot and restoring from that but I have never had good luck with MondoRescue or Clonezilla. Thought I'd better ask now before I stuck my foot in it. -- Bob Holtzman Key ID: 8D549279 "If you think you're getting free lunch, check the price of the beer"
Until you get responses from people who actually know what they are talking about. ?1 what is the file system on the usb drive. Fat32 cannot preserve owner/group or their permissions. ?2 preserving hard links end-to-end a3 rsync will use whatever targets are currently existing and their underlying file systems. -----Original Message----- From: rsync-bounces at lists.samba.org [mailto:rsync-bounces at lists.samba.org] On Behalf Of Robert Holtzman Sent: Sunday, April 24, 2011 12:51 PM To: rsync at lists.samba.org Subject: restoring system I have restored my home directory in the past using rsync but never the entire system. If I rsync / (on my usb drive containing the backup) to / on the computer with a fresh install of the OS, what problems will I run into? What about links? I am presently triple booting 3 linux distros and want to delete one to install something else. The distro I'm installing will be on 3 partitions (/, /boot, and /home). Will what I'm proposing populate the directories in these partitions or will it dump everything into /? I realize that I probably be better off creating a snapshot and restoring from that but I have never had good luck with MondoRescue or Clonezilla. Thought I'd better ask now before I stuck my foot in it. -- Bob Holtzman Key ID: 8D549279 "If you think you're getting free lunch, check the price of the beer" -- Please use reply-all for most replies to avoid omitting the mailing list. To unsubscribe or change options: https://lists.samba.org/mailman/listinfo/rsync Before posting, read: http://www.catb.org/~esr/faqs/smart-questions.html
On 24.04.2011 10:51, Robert Holtzman wrote:> I have restored my home directory in the past using rsync but never the > entire system. If I rsync / (on my usb drive containing the backup) to / > on the computer with a fresh install of the OS, what problems will I run > into? What about links? I am presently triple booting 3 linux distros and > want to delete one to install something else. The distro I'm installing > will be on 3 partitions (/, /boot, and /home). Will what I'm proposing > populate the directories in these partitions or will it dump everything > into /? > > I realize that I probably be better off creating a snapshot and > restoring from that but I have never had good luck with MondoRescue or > Clonezilla. > > Thought I'd better ask now before I stuck my foot in it.I reguarly move my systems to other storage (with rsync), which is relativly comparable. In a nutshell - The backup-filesytem has to have the capabilty to store uid/gid/permissions (and ACL/Xattr if needed) - I assume a system using udev, which means no "special" files anywhere - rsync -axH --numeric-ids --delete ... (also -A for ACL, and -X for Xattrs if needed) This copies everything, including hardlinks (-H) - Each partition should be copied separatly (-x is for that) - At least the root partition should be mounted somewhere else and rsynced from there, so that all mount-points can be copied correctlyX. I ignore "problematic" demons, like databases, here. If in doubt, go to single-user-mode first or at least stop all "problematic" demons and/or .... Last but not least is the boot-loader, but i ignore that too. Bis denn -- Real Programmers consider "what you see is what you get" to be just as bad a concept in Text Editors as it is in women. No, the Real Programmer wants a "you asked for it, you got it" text editor -- complicated, cryptic, powerful, unforgiving, dangerous.