On 24.04.2011 10:51, Robert Holtzman wrote: > I have restored my home directory in the past using rsync but never the > entire system. If I rsync / (on my usb drive containing the backup) to / > on the computer with a fresh install of the OS, what problems will I run > into? What about links? I am presently triple booting 3 linux distros and > want to delete one to install something else. The distro I'm installing > will be on 3 partitions (/, /boot, and /home). Will what I'm proposing > populate the directories in these partitions or will it dump everything > into /? > > I realize that I probably be better off creating a snapshot and > restoring from that but I have never had good luck with MondoRescue or > Clonezilla. > > Thought I'd better ask now before I stuck my foot in it.
I reguarly move my systems to other storage (with rsync), which is relativly comparable. In a nutshell - The backup-filesytem has to have the capabilty to store uid/gid/permissions (and ACL/Xattr if needed) - I assume a system using udev, which means no "special" files anywhere - rsync -axH --numeric-ids --delete ... (also -A for ACL, and -X for Xattrs if needed) This copies everything, including hardlinks (-H) - Each partition should be copied separatly (-x is for that) - At least the root partition should be mounted somewhere else and rsynced from there, so that all mount-points can be copied correctlyX. I ignore "problematic" demons, like databases, here. If in doubt, go to single-user-mode first or at least stop all "problematic" demons and/or .... Last but not least is the boot-loader, but i ignore that too. Bis denn -- Real Programmers consider "what you see is what you get" to be just as bad a concept in Text Editors as it is in women. No, the Real Programmer wants a "you asked for it, you got it" text editor -- complicated, cryptic, powerful, unforgiving, dangerous. -- Please use reply-all for most replies to avoid omitting the mailing list. To unsubscribe or change options: https://lists.samba.org/mailman/listinfo/rsync Before posting, read: http://www.catb.org/~esr/faqs/smart-questions.html