Hi All!

Apparently I am missing something basic. I am trying to make a backup of number of data directories to DVD. I know that growisofs can pass parameters to mkisofs, but I would like to do things in two steps, so I am first calling mkisofs myself. I would like to include the full paths to the directories, but it seems that mkisofs is simply adding each specified directory onto the root.

The command I have looks like this:

mkisofs ${OPTIONS} -o ${DVD_DIR}/dvd_backup.iso -path-list ${PATH_LIST_FILE}

where

OPTIONS="-V Backup -volset $NOW -disable-deep-relocation -J -l -f -r -joliet-long"

and the ${PATH_LIST_FILE} contains:

/data/BACKUPS/config_backup.current.tgz
/data/MYSQL/dumps
/data/home/garion/Data
/data/home/garion/Mail
/data/home/garion/.kde

When I mount the ISO image to look at the contents, I see that the contents of these directories are in the root of the ISO FS. What I would like is to have the directories /data/MYSQL/dumps, /data/home/garion/Data, etc on the DVD.

When I add the -graft-points option and change the include list to things like this:

/data/MYSQL/dumps=/data/MYSQL/dumps

then obviously the directories are created as I expect. I was wondering if there was a simple option to mkisofs that says to create the directories "as is" without having to add the graft points like this.

- garion

The ${PATH_LIST_FILE} variable must not have any breaks in it; the argument must be one continuous line;
If you need it to reference a file, then make sure you strip all return carriages or new lines. If I am not understanding the question correctly, please try to restate for me or just post the code.

Thanks for the reply.

${PATH_LIST_FILE} is actually a file which contains a list of the paths to include, with one file name or directory on each line. I guess I should have said that the ${PATH_LIST_FILE} variable contains the name of the file which contains the list of files and directories I want on the DVD.

The mkisofs says that the option "-path-list" is "A file containing a list of pathspec directories and filenames". I was not aware that you can have a list of the files to add following the -path-list option, which your post seems to imply as the shell would expand "-path-list ${PATH_LIST_FILE}" on the command line to:

mkisofs -V Backup_20060923.1527 -volset 20060923.1527 -J -l -f -r -D -joliet-long -o /data_SAVE/XFER/DVD_BACKUP/dvd_backup.iso -path-list /data/BACKUPS/config_backup.current.tgz /data/MYSQL/dumps /data/home/garion/Data

Which returns:

mkisofs: No such file or directory. Invalid node -

My assumption is that mkisofs is trying to read config_backup.current.tgz for the list of files, and thus cannot find a directory "node". Now I am even more confused.

What I am trying to do is have the full paths of the files directories copied to the DVD "as is" without being relocated to the root of the DVD. Using graft points works and is a viable solution if all else fails. I was looking at the mkisofs man-page and it has:

-D Do not use deep directory relocation, and instead just pack them in the way we see them.

I assumed that it meant to put them onto the DVD "as is". So, without having to specify graft points, is there a way to add the full path of the directories?

As a test, just specify one file instead of many. If that works then try enclosing the filenames in quotes...
-path-list "/data/BACKUPS/config_backup.current.tgz /data/MYSQL/dumps /data/home/garion/Data"

Post back the entire set of error messages; even try running the command in verbose mode if possible.

saturn:/data/BACKUPS # mkisofs -V Backup_20060923.1527 -volset 20060923.1527 \
-J -l -f -r -D -joliet-long -o /data_SAVE/XFER/DVD_BACKUP/dvd_backup.iso \ -path-list /data/BACKUPS/config_backup.current.tgz
mkisofs: Warning: -follow-links does not always work correctly; be careful.
INFO: ISO-8859-1 character encoding detected by locale settings.
Assuming ISO-8859-1 encoded filenames on source filesystem,
use -input-charset to override.
mkisofs: No such file or directory. Invalid node -

The only option I found related to the verbosity was -quiet, which turns down the verbosity.

Try running the command like this; replace pathlistfilename.txt with the name of the file that contains your copy directories.

I hate to appear ungrateful, but with the exception using the -D instead of -disable-deep-relocation and the order of the options, I see no difference between the last command and the command I was using at the very beginning. The result is the same. Unless I use the -graft-points option and specify the graft-points in the -path-list file, then the contents of the directories specified end up in the root directory of the CD. From what I see, we have basically gone full-circle. I have the same command I did at the beginning and I am not getting the complete paths.