From owner-freebsd-questions Wed Apr 3 09:44:50 1996 Return-Path: owner-questions Received: (from root@localhost) by freefall.freebsd.org (8.7.3/8.7.3) id JAA10120 for questions-outgoing; Wed, 3 Apr 1996 09:44:50 -0800 (PST) Received: from phaeton.artisoft.com (phaeton.Artisoft.COM [198.17.250.211]) by freefall.freebsd.org (8.7.3/8.7.3) with SMTP id JAA10115 for ; Wed, 3 Apr 1996 09:44:47 -0800 (PST) Received: (from terry@localhost) by phaeton.artisoft.com (8.6.11/8.6.9) id KAA19445; Wed, 3 Apr 1996 10:37:34 -0700 From: Terry Lambert Message-Id: <199604031737.KAA19445@phaeton.artisoft.com> Subject: Re: Backup Software To: lehey.pad@sni.de (Greg Lehey) Date: Wed, 3 Apr 1996 10:37:34 -0700 (MST) Cc: terry@lambert.org, lutz@muc.de, ishort@pcm.co.za, freebsd-questions@freefall.freebsd.org In-Reply-To: <199604030606.IAA15998@nixpbe.pdb.sni.de> from "Greg Lehey" at Apr 3, 96 09:21:09 am X-Mailer: ELM [version 2.4 PL24] MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Sender: owner-questions@FreeBSD.ORG X-Loop: FreeBSD.org Precedence: bulk > >> I wouldn't use cpio (or tar) to backup my system. They both have problems > >> with special files, sparse file and files with long names. You should > >> better use dump/restore instead. I' using the following command: > >> dump 0uBf > >> Repeat foreach file system. > > > > I wouldn't backup special files. > > Why not? I find it a useful feature, if it's done right. My > definition of 'right' is that restoring a special file restores the > file's inode, not any 'contents' it might have. Because special files should be intrinsic to the system and created or destroyed only by successful hardware probes or subsystem registration. As such, you don't need to back them up because they are never, ever, going to get damaged or go away... so you will never, ever, need to restore them from backup. Terry Lambert terry@lambert.org --- Any opinions in this posting are my own and not those of my present or previous employers.