On Thu, 2 Aug 2001, Greg Kettmann wrote:
> For example the contents of /etc. I used Samba to copy them but there
> are many "open" files making this a poor idea.
There is no safe, generic way to backup a file actively in use. Even
those backup packages which claim to support "Open File Backups" are not to
be trusted. Sure, they can take a "snapshot" of the filesystem at any given
time, but they have no way of knowing if the files are actually in a
consistent state when they do so.
> In most cases I know the file is open (say a log file) and don't really
> care, I just want a snapshot.
In that case, pretty much anything will do. Unix is very lenient (some
might say too lenient) when it comes to multiple programs accessing the same
file at once. Unless something is using mandatory file locking (rare), you
can do whatever you want. Including using Samba.
> Is TAR the proper tool? What options or parameters to backup the entire
> /etc tree?
Shut down to single-user mode, and do a full backup of the entire /etc
tree, as follows:
init 1
cd /
tar --create --gzip --file /etc-archive.tar.gz /etc
> How can I make my backup, or tarball, unzippable under Windows?
I know WinZip supports the tar and gzip formats. I believe PowerArchiver
(a free (gratis) clone of WinZip) does as well.
Alternatively, you could create a PKZip archive instead:
init 1
cd /
zip -r etc-archive.zip /etc
Be aware that you will lose file ownership and permission information, as
well as symbolic links, if you do this. This makes it a bad idea for
archiving the /etc tree, which has lots of complexity in this department.
> My CD burner is on a Windows machine and I'd prefer to put the backup on
> CD uncompressed to allow easier access or browsing of the contents.
Same caveats as with PKZip. I would write the .tar.gz file to the CD "as
is" to preserve the information. If you want, you could also put the
unpacked files on the CD as well, getting the best of both worlds.
You can write native Unix filesystem information (symlinks and such) to a
CD with the "Rock Ridge Extensions" to ISO-9660, but that is not going to
work from a Windows system. I suppose you could master a CD image using the
"mkisofs" utility on Linux, and the copy the CD image to Windows, and then
write that image to disc (if your CD recorder software supports that).
--
Ben Scott <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
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