I asked this question some time ago. I've a script in /etc/cron.weekly named "backup" (rwxr-xr-x root/root) that looks like this:
#!/bin/sh mount /media/mirror dirName=`date +%F` mkdir /media/mirror/"$dirName" find / -print | egrep -v "^/media|^/proc|^/sys|^/mnt" | cpio -pdmuv \ /media/mirror/"$dirName" 2>&1 | cat -vt umount /media/mirror exit 0 I regularly get only partial backups when run by cron, but full backups if run from command line by root. For example, in / I have two symlinks. Both are rwxrwxrwx root/root, but only one gets backed up. Another example, /home gets backed up, but /etc does not, even though both are rwxr-xr-x root/root, Yet another example: In / I have two plain text files, both are rw-r--r-- root/root, but only one gets backed up. Plenty of room on the backup device (external UPS drive). My syslog reports the backup started. No other log entries of interest: Dec 9 04:00:01 teufel /USR/SBIN/CRON[23041]: (brownh) CMD (/home/brownh/scripts/backup) Dec 9 04:00:01 teufel /USR/SBIN/CRON[23043]: (brownh) CMD (fetchmail) Dec 9 04:00:01 teufel kernel: kjournald starting. Commit interval 5 seconds Dec 9 04:00:01 teufel kernel: EXT3-fs warning: maximal mount count reached, running e2fsck is recommended Dec 9 04:00:01 teufel kernel: EXT3 FS on sdd1, internal journal Dec 9 04:00:01 teufel kernel: EXT3-fs: mounted filesystem with ordered data mode. Dec 9 04:00:01 teufel identd[23056]: started -- Haines Brown, KB1GRM -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]