Upgrading to Edgy using CD / backing up whole system

[Georg Sauthoff]

On 2007-01-12, Ben Edwards <funkytwig at gmail.com> wrote:
>> I want to do a backup I suggest this:

s/I want/If you want/

>> - don't boot the system you want to backup!
>> - boot via a Live-CD

> Would it not be easier/quicker to go into single user mode (init 0)?

I don't think so (single user mode is init 1). The problems I see with
this are:
- need to tell tar not to descend into mount-points
- if /dev is not completely dynamic, this content isn't included
- the mountpoints are not in the backup - you have to create them
manually

>> - plug you usb-drive mount it etc
>> - use a tar-program! (GNU tar or star) - then you don't have to care, if
>> your cp does everything right (like not following links, ignoring
>> special files, saving attributes and permissions etc.) - tar is just
>> designed to do it right.

> Yes, just realized this.  I also remember that it is /., not / that
> the source needs to be.  I seem to remember that missing the . means
> that some (hidden I think) files can be missed.

No, /. expands to / - this has the same effect. You probably remembered
the classic home directory backup mistake:
# cd
# cp -r * /mnt/floppy
In this case you don't get the .dot-files/directories, because the *
shell wildcard doesn't match them.

# cp -r . /mnt/floppy
would work as expected, but again you want to use tar in this case,
anyway.

> Also I guess the other advantage of tar is it can compress (kind of on the fly).

Yes, if you use the -z Option.

Regards
Georg Sauthoff