Making backups of several users

[Kelly L. Fulks]

Nigel Ridley wrote:
> I want to upgrade to Dapper on my children's box. Before I do so I want
> to make a backup cd of their personel files, photos etc.
> 
> How can I make a backup on a single cd for three different user accounts
> whilst keeping permissions intact?
> Do I use k3b using 'kdesu k3b' - would this preserve their individual
> permissions (obviously using the 'Preserve file permissions (backup)'
> option in k3b)? Or would it all default to root?
> 
> I don't want to have to burn seperate cd's for each of the children's
> /home files.
> 
> Blessings,
> 
> Nigel
> 

You could always build a .tgz file and put that on the CD.  It will burn
faster (assuming some significant number of text files), and take less
space as well.

sudo tar -czvf child_backup.tgz /home/???? /home/???? <as many times as
needed).  Then burn the file child_backup.tgz to the CD.  This will
preserve the permissions properly once restored.  To restore you would
simply place the cd in the drive, wait for it to mount and then:

cd /
sudo tar -xzvf /media/cdrom/child_backup.tgz

You should have no problems with permissions using this assuming you
have the same userids with the upgraded system that you have on the
current system.

-- 
Kelly L. Fulks
Home Account
near Huntsville, AL