[SOLVED] Messages I don't really understand from Backup aliases.

Ben9250 · 2010-07-04 23:17:45

Hey guys, I hope you can demystify me here, I've made myself some backup aliases and I want to do some backups of stuff before I update my system. So far I have one for backing up /var, /home and /etc they go thus:

alias backpac='yaourt -B ~/ && echo "A backup of the pacman database has been generated in the home folder. To restore the database, use the command alias restpac and then path to file"'

alias backupetc='sudo tar -cjf ~/etc-backup.tar.bz2 /etc && echo "restore /
etc files by extracting the file and copying over individal files or directories as needed. To restore the entire thing, copy the files to the / directory and running restoreetc."'

alias backuphome='sudo tar -cjf ~/home-backup.tar.bz2 /home && echo "A backup file of /home has been generated. Restore by extracting individial files or by using the command alias restorehome."'

When I run backuphome and backupetc I get the message: "tar: Removing leading `/' from member names" and I'm still not really sure on what this means exactly or more importantly on whether there is anything I need to do about it. When I get to doing backuphome I also get: tar: /home/ben/.config/chromium/SingletonSocket: socket ignored
tar: /home/ben/home-backup.tar.bz2: file changed as we read it
tar: /home/ben/.gvfs: Cannot stat: Permission denied
tar: Exiting with failure status due to previous errors

Now the first one I know is to do with Chrome, which I plan on removing anyway, I installed both it and firefox and chose firefox for my uni stuff. I'm lost on the others really, the second one vexes me as that file is the one being created anyway.

What is your advice on these (or indeed backing up stuff this way, I have also got an alias for backing up my pkg-list but it works fine)?
Cheers.

Last edited by Ben9250 (2010-07-05 21:37:58)

fabertawe · 2010-07-05 11:19:37

1. I also get the "tar: Removing leading / from member names" message when backing up /etc and I just ignore it.
2. I use rsync to mirror /home and occasionally a file changes between the time rsync prepares the file list and actually tries to copy that file.
3. I exclude .gvfs from my rsync backup for the same reason.

Inxsible · 2010-07-05 13:27:54

Ben9250 wrote:

http://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?id=24666

Its because you are trying to store the backup file in the partition that you are backing up. When it starts the tar process, it starts to read your /home and then store it back in home since you have ~/home-backup.tar.gz. So it becomes a cyclical process.

Try to store the backup file on another partition or an external drive and you won't see that error. That's the point of the backup anyway, that you store the backup on another drive

Ben9250 · 2010-07-05 13:34:10

Ok cheers, the point of it was to write them to CD, but I just did it witout to test the aliases worked so I'm guessing when I do it to a CD it will stop the cyclical process. I had a look at rsync and it seems to work well, which would you recommend as a way of regular backup? I notices rsync generated a folder-almost like a copy, whereas my aliases I made from reading another thread on backup generates tar files.

Inxsible · 2010-07-05 13:40:17

Ben9250 wrote:

Ok cheers, the point of it was to write them to CD, but I just did it witout to test the aliases worked so I'm guessing when I do it to a CD it will stop the cyclical process. I had a look at rsync and it seems to work well, which would you recommend as a way of regular backup? I notices rsync generated a folder-almost like a copy, whereas my aliases I made from reading another thread on backup generates tar files.

you can use rsync to generate tars as well. if you use the -W option, it will make an exact copy. Read more on

man rsync

Ben9250 · 2010-07-05 14:24:11

I had a look at -W mode:

-W, --whole-file copy files whole (without delta-xfer algorithm)

Does this mean the difference detection algorithm or something else? As this is the first mention of a named algorithm I've seen, the wiki and manual just said "It uses a difference detection algorithm" or words to that effect. It's not too important, just for information. =]

Inxsible · 2010-07-05 15:40:59

Ben9250 wrote:

I had a look at -W mode:
-W, --whole-file copy files whole (without delta-xfer algorithm)
Does this mean the difference detection algorithm or something else? As this is the first mention of a named algorithm I've seen, the wiki and manual just said "It uses a difference detection algorithm" or words to that effect. It's not too important, just for information. =]

Whole file means just that, it will always copy the entire file. if you don't use this option, then only the deltas (difference between the existing file and the new file being backed up) are re-written\.

Ben9250 · 2010-07-05 15:58:53

Thanks Inxible, fabertawe, this will help me have a leg to stand on should an update go arwy =]

Arch Linux

#1 2010-07-04 23:17:45

[SOLVED] Messages I don't really understand from Backup aliases.

#2 2010-07-05 11:19:37

Re: [SOLVED] Messages I don't really understand from Backup aliases.

#3 2010-07-05 13:27:54

Re: [SOLVED] Messages I don't really understand from Backup aliases.

#4 2010-07-05 13:34:10

Re: [SOLVED] Messages I don't really understand from Backup aliases.

#5 2010-07-05 13:40:17

Re: [SOLVED] Messages I don't really understand from Backup aliases.

#6 2010-07-05 14:24:11

Re: [SOLVED] Messages I don't really understand from Backup aliases.

#7 2010-07-05 15:40:59

Re: [SOLVED] Messages I don't really understand from Backup aliases.

#8 2010-07-05 15:58:53

Re: [SOLVED] Messages I don't really understand from Backup aliases.

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