[svlug] Re: Mass copying (was: svlug digest, Vol 1 #619 - 1 msg)

[Rick Moen]

begin Al Udal quotation:

> well, just please be more specific on adding an -x option -- what kind of 
> stability it may add to a solution? And if I'm grabbing some pseudo file 
> systems by my simple cp -a suggestion, what harm does it imply?

/proc contains some pseudo-files you _definitely_ do not want to attempt
to copy, such as /dev/kcore, which is an image of your RAM contents.
There may be more perilous things in there, but I can't remember
specifics. 

I would avoid trying to copy (let alone move) /dev, too, just on general
suspicion.  (Or, hey, give it a try on a system where you don't mind a
little downtime, and see what happens.)
 
> there's nothing in general to warrant an exact mirroring of an /usr copy
> (backup), that was my opinion.

Well, you find, over time, that it's desirable to know how to copy /
move directory trees or filesystems.  Let's say, for example, that you
eventually decide that your original partitioning scheme was unwise:
You left too little room for some subtrees, too much for others.  You
now want some on separate partitions that ended up sharing one, want
some to be mountable read-only, and want to apply disk quotas to others.

So, that's when you end up researching all the ways (recently mentioned,
here) to copy / move filesystems or directory trees, and debating which
is best for your situation.

> I'm a Linux newbie, after all, and I was writing for newbies, too. My
> major message was that those powerful tools like tarring/piping could
> lead you to nowhere here, so to speak.

Well, be careful, don't run with scissors, and you'll get a real kick
out of successfully moving an entire partition using a "tar" pipeline.
It's worth learning.

-- 
Cheers,                                      Right to keep and bear
Rick Moen                                  Haiku shall not be abridged
rick at linuxmafia.com                           Or denied.  So there.