Re: copying root partition

[Bob Hilliard <hilliard@flinet.com>]

Rick Macdonald <Rick_Macdonald@calgary.shaw.wave.ca> writes:
> > I like "cp -ax" for this task, because of its shortness.
> 
> I told a friend to use "cp -a". I forgot about "-x", but he only has one
> filesystem.
> 
> However, the copy hung on the file /proc/kmsg. Would the -x have avoided
> this? In the end, he had to use tar.

     cp -ax would have skipped /proc completely.  Actually, your
friend has more than one file system.  proc is a virtual file system,
mounted on the mount point /proc.

     When you copy an entire file system with cp -ax it skips any
separate file systems, and doesn't even copy the mount points.  So
after copying, you have to check the directories that contained the
mount points, and create them in the new system.  I prefer to unmount
as many separate files systems as possible before running cp -ax.

Bob
-- 
   _
  |_)  _  |_       Robert D. Hilliard    <hilliard@flinet.com>
  |_) (_) |_)      Palm City, FL  USA    PGP Key ID: A8E40EB9


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