Re: [SLUG] Backups keeping symbolic links.

2006-11-13 Thread Eddie F

I meant that we'd like to keep symlinks and restore them as they
where, rather than replacing the symlink with the original file or
loosing them all together.


On 11/13/06, Matthew Hannigan [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:

On Sun, Nov 12, 2006 at 03:06:28PM +1100, Eddie F wrote:
 Hi all,

 I've been ask the question by a friend about what alternatives to cpio
 there might be, for backing up to a tape drive and keeping symbolic
 links preserved. Had a bit of a dig around on Google, but haven't had
 much luck... Any suggestions?

Pretty much everything keeps symlinks, cpio, tar, dump.

Or did you mean you want to save the thing symlinked-to?



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Re: Relevance of dump (was: Re: [SLUG] Backups keeping symbolic links.)

2006-11-13 Thread Jamie Wilkinson
This one time, at band camp, Penedo wrote:
On 13/11/06, Matthew Hannigan [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:

Pretty much everything keeps symlinks, cpio, tar, dump.


Just taking this opportunity to try to satisfy my curiosity.

I was wondering what's the state of dump(8) in the current world of multiple
file system types, a quick Google came up with the following at the top of
the list, it's dated circa 2002:

The ext2fs/ext3fs dump utility is officially declared deprecated by
Linus Torvalds...

http://archives.neohapsis.com/archives/postfix/2002-07/0501.html

Other links from Google point to dump format-dependency - you can't dump a
ext3fs filesystem and be able to restore it directly onto, say, an XFS or
JFS filesystem.

Besides - is there any sense in using dump these days? It made sense back
when dump was much faster than tar/cpio by avoiding running namei on each
file and when large multi-user machines were taken down to single user mode
for a backup (I'm talking about the VAX/CCI and 4.2BSD days). But does it
make sense in today's context, with filesystem snapshots and always-on
desktops?

I wouldn't consider this as an option but since you mentioned it I wonder if
there is a situation where it's justifiable to use it.

dump might be quicker than tar, and preserves the entire filesystem state
(not just POSIX, for example, tar doesn't store POSIX ACLs, though star
does).  If you need to do a bare metal recovery, onto identical hardware,
then dump may solve your needs -- though I admit, I never used it and tar
always did good enough.
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[SLUG] Backups keeping symbolic links.

2006-11-12 Thread Eddie F

Hi all,

I've been ask the question by a friend about what alternatives to cpio
there might be, for backing up to a tape drive and keeping symbolic
links preserved. Had a bit of a dig around on Google, but haven't had
much luck... Any suggestions?

Thanks,
Edd.
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Re: [SLUG] Backups keeping symbolic links.

2006-11-12 Thread Matthew Hannigan
On Sun, Nov 12, 2006 at 03:06:28PM +1100, Eddie F wrote:
 Hi all,
 
 I've been ask the question by a friend about what alternatives to cpio
 there might be, for backing up to a tape drive and keeping symbolic
 links preserved. Had a bit of a dig around on Google, but haven't had
 much luck... Any suggestions?

Pretty much everything keeps symlinks, cpio, tar, dump.

Or did you mean you want to save the thing symlinked-to?

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Relevance of dump (was: Re: [SLUG] Backups keeping symbolic links.)

2006-11-12 Thread Penedo

On 13/11/06, Matthew Hannigan [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:


Pretty much everything keeps symlinks, cpio, tar, dump.



Just taking this opportunity to try to satisfy my curiosity.

I was wondering what's the state of dump(8) in the current world of multiple
file system types, a quick Google came up with the following at the top of
the list, it's dated circa 2002:

The ext2fs/ext3fs dump utility is officially declared deprecated by
Linus Torvalds...

http://archives.neohapsis.com/archives/postfix/2002-07/0501.html

Other links from Google point to dump format-dependency - you can't dump a
ext3fs filesystem and be able to restore it directly onto, say, an XFS or
JFS filesystem.

Besides - is there any sense in using dump these days? It made sense back
when dump was much faster than tar/cpio by avoiding running namei on each
file and when large multi-user machines were taken down to single user mode
for a backup (I'm talking about the VAX/CCI and 4.2BSD days). But does it
make sense in today's context, with filesystem snapshots and always-on
desktops?

I wouldn't consider this as an option but since you mentioned it I wonder if
there is a situation where it's justifiable to use it.

Cheers,

--P
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Re: Relevance of dump (was: Re: [SLUG] Backups keeping symbolic links.)

2006-11-12 Thread Matthew Hannigan
On Mon, Nov 13, 2006 at 02:12:10PM +1100, Penedo wrote:
 On 13/11/06, Matthew Hannigan [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
 
 Pretty much everything keeps symlinks, cpio, tar, dump.
 
 
 Just taking this opportunity to try to satisfy my curiosity.
 
 I was wondering what's the state of dump(8) in the current world of multiple
 [ .. ]

I only really mentioned for completeness; I don't use
dump and (almost) never have, for the reasons you
mention.

Matt



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Re: [SLUG] Backups keeping symbolic links.

2006-11-12 Thread Matthew Hannigan
On Mon, Nov 13, 2006 at 02:21:30PM +1100, Eddie F wrote:
 I meant that we'd like to keep symlinks and restore them as they
 where, rather than replacing the symlink with the original file or
 loosing them all together.

Then you don't have to do anything special.

matt

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