cp -al dir1/ dir2/ but skip some dir1/subdir

Meson · 09-28-2008, 01:16 PM

I want to start taking snapshots of my home directory using the cp command with hardlinks. However I don't want to include EVERYTHING. For example

Code:

$ cp -al ~/.mozilla/ backupdir/
$ rm -fr backupdir/.mozilla/myprofile/Cache

I don't want to be snapshotting the cache because I think this could make them become very inefficient.

Does anyone have a better idea of how to do this without a cp and then rm?

jailbait · 09-28-2008, 01:39 PM

I use the cpbk command to do do backups which exclude part of the file tree. cpbk is very similiar to the cp command with the addition that cpbk has a control file in which you can exclude or include parts of your file tree. cpbk is no longer maintained so I keep using my old tar.gz for cpbk and compile it on each new system that I install.

You can get the latest tar.gz for cpbk here:

http://ftp.nluug.nl/pub/os/Linux/dis...l/main/c/cpbk/

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Steve Stites