From owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Sun Apr 18 13:38:57 2010 Return-Path: Delivered-To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.freebsd.org (mx1.freebsd.org [IPv6:2001:4f8:fff6::34]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 89647106567B for ; Sun, 18 Apr 2010 13:38:57 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from jd_bronson@sbcglobal.net) Received: from cheyenne.sixcompanies.com (cheyenne.sixcompanies.com [75.56.235.65]) by mx1.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 633B28FC08 for ; Sun, 18 Apr 2010 13:38:57 +0000 (UTC) Received: from macbook.sixcompanies.com (macbook.sixcompanies.com [10.56.235.6]) by cheyenne.sixcompanies.com (Postfix) with ESMTP id 007817EE07 for ; Sun, 18 Apr 2010 08:23:12 -0500 (CDT) Message-ID: <4BCB07C0.8010305@sbcglobal.net> Date: Sun, 18 Apr 2010 08:23:12 -0500 From: "J.D. Bronson" MIME-Version: 1.0 To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1; format=flowed Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Subject: Backing up freebsd to 1 file? X-BeenThere: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.5 Precedence: list List-Id: User questions List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Sun, 18 Apr 2010 13:38:57 -0000 I have a freebsd 8.0 install and was wondering if it is possible to tar up the entire install...for backup purposes. # cd / # tar -cvf backup.tar {list of directories} then I can ftp the tar file out to another machine. This works in theory, but if I need to do a restore tar complains on 'tar -xpf backup.tar'. Under OpenBSD, this works as expected. It has given me an easy way to backup/move/restore or anything I want to do w/o complaining. I am running Freebsd on a machine that has no other drives/tapes or anything so my options for backup are limited. All I am trying to do is get a complete image (or snapshot) of my entire install on this machine and then if I needed to reload or reinstall, I could do a bare bones freebsd install, copy over the tar'd up file and extract it from within / and then reboot an I would be go to go. Thoughts on this would be appreciated... -- J.D. Bronson