Full Backup With Cpio!
 

Hello!

I want to make a full backup of my hard drive using CPIO command under Suse (SLES 8).
I have these partitions on my hard drive:

- /dev/sda1: /boot 100MB (reiserfs)
- /dev/sda2: /root 4GB (reiserfs)
- /dev/sda1: /swap 2GB
- /dev/sda1: /opt rest of hard drive (reiserfs)

I used CPIO command to make full backup of my hard drive:
# cd /
# find . -depth -print | cpio -ov > /babckup/full_backup.cpio

But I need to exclude some directories (proc, tmp, dev) when I make backup.
How can I do this?

In case I lose hard drive I plan to get new hard drive, install basic OS, copy backup file to new hard drive (to /) and restore it with cpio.

Will this work?

Because I have some doubts about restoring and replacing files while they are been used by OS (etc for example).

How about a TAR? Should I use that?

Thank in advance

I like cpio but off-hand I haven't seen any instructions for excluding directories using that tool. It can save the output as tar and several other types though. Something like this....
find . -depth | cpio --create --format=tar > /mnt/backups/test.tar

If you use the tar utility instead, you could tell it what to backup by reading a list. You can make the list by hand or use ls to make it. Then you can edit the list to remove dirtectories which you don't want backed up.

ls -d *"/" > /home/list.txt

The tar statement would look like this......
tar -cvf /mnt/backups/test.tar \
-T, --files-from=/home/list.txt

Really though, I'm a fan of the partimage tool for making my system images. :)

I've tried partimage.
Works OK. But when you make backup with partimage you need to unmount partition that you are backing up. I need to have all partitions available all the time.

I'll try tar, but I think that tar restore only files that don't allready exist on hard drive. So, I don't know will tar restore old config files.

Thanks!

Here's another option. http://www.mondorescue.org/docs/docs.html
Somehow, it can work on a live system and you can put the backup onto a bunch of different things like an iso image or cdrom.....

To Exclude Directories
 

Use: grep -v

Example:

# find . -depth -print | grep -v proc| grep -v tmp| grep -v dev| cpio -ov > /babckup/full_backup.cpio

I though I just add a belated solution, try this:

just simple replace my directories with your. Cheers

Hello thank's metallica1973

I used your instruction now to backup my full system but system only not /home directory's or other drives. I do not create a .cpio file but use pass trough copy. hardrive space is not a problem, I use a seperated internal drive for my backup's. Which is mounted on /media/databackup (made an fstab entry for it) The modified instruction here.

find . \( -wholename ./proc -o -wholename ./dev -o -wholename ./tmp -o -wholename ./var/run -o -wholename ./sys -o -wholename ./media -o -wholename ./home \) -prune -o -print | cpio -apdmv /media/databackup/linuxos

cpio options

-p passtrough copy in out
-d make dirs
-m preserve modification
-v verbose
-a reset-access-time

*note i also ignored de /var/run

For the home directory I just backup as root using cp

cp -afprv /home/myhomedir /media/databackup/home

cp options

-a = archive
-f= force
-p = preserve
-r= recursive
-v= verbose to show actions performed

To make my life easy I just make scripts of it which I run as sudo. -:)