--On Tuesday, September 27, 2005 17:46:03 -0700 Jerome Pioux <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> Frank, thank you for your explanation. > > I didn't loose any data, what the links pointed to were backed up in other > DLE as you mentionned and were successfuly restored. > > However, if it was only a couple links like /usr/local pointing to /opt/local > as you mentionned in your example, I could recreate them easily... But when > you have applications or users that use links everywhere, well this is > another story :-( > > I guess I was hoping that, somehow??? even without following the link itself, > Amanda or Gnutar would be able to store where it was pointing to?... > > So, if I understand you correctly, there is NO WAY using Amanda/Gnu Tar to > get those links to point back to what they were poiting at - if correct, what > about dump, would this solve this problem? I may not have read your original posting closely and been clear enough in my explanation. Tar should record the link itself, it just doesn't follow it. In my example of /usr/local being a link to /opt/local and you backup /usr, then when you restore you should have the link local -> /opt/local recreated, but /opt/local won't exist unless it is already there or is restored from somewhere else. If your tar is just creating an empty file (and not a link), then you may either have a problem with your version of tar or possibly an OS that refuses to create a link to a non-existent target. You could test for both of those manually outside of Amanda to verify. Frank > > Jerome > > > ----- Original Message ----- From: "Frank Smith" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > To: "Jerome Pioux" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>; <[email protected]> > Sent: Tuesday, September 27, 2005 4:30 PM > Subject: Re: Symbolic links > > >> --On Tuesday, September 27, 2005 16:07:32 -0700 Jerome Pioux >> <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: >> >>> Hi, >>> >>> I am surely doing something wrong but I have problems restoring symbolic >>> links. >>> Files that were symbolic links at backup time became empty file (0 size) >>> after the restore? >>> Backups were made using TAR (GNU tar 1.15.1). >>> Any idea please? Thank you. >> >> It sounds like the links are being restored (a link does have a size >> of 0), but you are wondering why what the link points to is not there. >> Tar (with the options Amanda calls it with) doesn't follow the link, it >> just archives the link itself (and doesn't cross filesystem boundaries >> either, nor does dump). >> If you backup /usr, and /usr/local is a link to /opt/local then all >> you will be backing up of /usr/local is the link itself. If you want >> what the link points to backed up, you need to make sure that whatever >> the link points to is either its own DLE or part of some other DLE. >> In my example it means you would have to backup both /usr and /opt/local, >> or perhaps just / if they are both on the same filesystem (and you don't >> care if you are backing up more than you need to). >> If you are wondering why tar isn't called with the option to follow >> links, it is because it would cause data to be backed up multiple times >> (once for the original and once for each link to it), and because it >> would make recovery fail, both from the increased size possibly not >> fitting on the disk and from the recovered filesystem not being the >> same layout as the original (could you find all the copies of a file >> if you needed to change it, and woul you want to have to?). >> >> Frank >> >> >>> >>> - Jerome >>> >> >> >> >> -- >> Frank Smith [EMAIL PROTECTED] >> Sr. Systems Administrator Voice: 512-374-4673 >> Hoover's Online Fax: 512-374-4501 >> -- Frank Smith [EMAIL PROTECTED] Sr. Systems Administrator Voice: 512-374-4673 Hoover's Online Fax: 512-374-4501
