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.....

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

1 members found this post helpful.

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. -