On Mar 10, 2011, at 6:40 AM, Neil Laubenthal wrote: > Technically you're correct . . .and I guess I should have thought about > dot-files . . .but I believe the OP said it was a server so things like > .ssh/.profile probably aren't in the data share on it (unless there are > mobile home directories of course) . . .your typical server data store has > resume.doc, financial plan.xls. It's also got .DS_stores for remembering > Finder related information . . .but in the great scheme of things those > aren't all that important.
dot files are a typical POSIX construct, and are used by everything from versioning systems, to repositories, to any unix based application that stores its preferences in them, and that's a lot. Not just user HOMEs which btw you also see quite commonly on fileservers, or user HOME backups to fileservers, etc. So, yes that means they commonly are on fileservers. And even with those you have management accounts which will likely have these files, "root", "admin" or whatever. Regardless, suggesting the Finder is going to collect all files in all cases is ludicrous given this fact and that it is specifically prohibited from seeing many parts of a filesystem. Can you in all honesty recommend a tool which is designed not to copy all files and will change metadata for files it does copy? That seems like a distinct lack of due diligence and promoting risk. The answer to the question of what is the best method to clone data between filesystems remains in the opinion of not just myself, but many notable OS X experts, Apple, and Apple engineers is that asr is preferred rather than the Finder or other tools. There may be, and are, other third party tools that also may produce identical clones but they aren't always around for access. The situation regarding file metadata and what specific tools copy and what they don't was first raised in a short white paper I wrote and which was then published in MacTech. Later others expanded on the work and produced a tool, Backup Bouncer, which was designed to report on what various tools did and did not properly copy in terms of file metadata. Mike Bombich expanded this tool for OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard. It should be noted that different revisions of 10.6 can produce different results with different tools. Mike's CCC, when properly used, uses either asr or a patched rsync which properly copies all file data and metadata. This is verified using the Backup Bouncer tool and reports for which are readily available. Specifically the Finder is pointed out as missing files, and munging metadata. > The idea was to (since the OP was unsure that her CCC or Time Machine copies > were good) . . .make sure you had a good copy of the actual data files for > the users before trying the DW or reformat or drive replacement or whatever > remedy was going to be tried next. > > We seem to have strayed significantly from course on this thread though:-) Indeed, but given all the multiple posts it's gotten unreadable anyway. -d ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Dan Shoop [email protected] GoogleVoice: 1-646-402-5293 aim: iWiring twitter: @colonelmode _______________________________________________ MacOSX-admin mailing list [email protected] http://www.omnigroup.com/mailman/listinfo/macosx-admin
