Hello all. I want to backup my /var partition on to a cd. I think what I have to do is create an iso of my /var partition first and then burn it to cd. So would it be like this:

mkisofs -o var_backup.iso /var
cdrecord -v speed=5 dev=0,0,0 -data /path/to/var_backup.iso

ummm...is this right? In the man pages for mkisofs it says something about Rock Ridge Extensions. Do I need those? This won't remove anything from the /var partition will it?

Is there a better way to do this?

Thanks in advance.

better as in?

you don't actually need to create the iso on the drive at all ...

mkisofs /var | cdrecord -

but then you'd probably want to add a check to make sure that it will fit, e.g. grepping a du or something.

You've spawned more questions acid. What if I want to backup /var and /etc? How do you add a checksum?

/me bows down in the presence of acid_kewpie

# KisoCD 0.6.4
mkisofs -L -l -J -R -A Disc-ID -P Publisher-ID -p Preparer-ID -V Volume-ID /etc/=/etc/ /var/=/var/ | cdrecord -v -pad -data -multi fs=12m speed=52 dev=0,0,0 driveropts=burnproof -

that'll give you some more options to think about.

Okay now I am more confused.

those are just the options my burning program puts
together when i set it to burn /var and /etc.
a bunch of mkisofs options, including joliet and
rockridge. I figured you would see how to add dirctories
to the iso image, here being created on the fly and written
to - (standard in), and cdrecord taking that data and
writing it to a multi-session cdrom, as the first session,
without an intermediate iso image. the - at the end tells
cdrecord to read from standard in instead of from a file.

hmmmm...so you would suggest to use that EXACT command or should I use the KisoCD program?

You can always tar and gzip, then burn. Squeeze that sucker down.

as part of a pipe command of course, zip on the fly...

See I tried that before but it didn't work. It wrote to the cd but the cd would not mount when I was done. I guess thats why I have to zip on the fly right. So do if I tarred some files, gzipped them, and then wrote the .tar.gz file to cd that would not work your saying. You must do it on the fly. Okay so would doing it on the fly look like this:

tar -cvf var_backup.tar /var/* | gzip | cdrecord -v speed=5 dev=0,0,0 -data

Like that? hmmm...I know I'm being a pain here but I've never done this before.

you've got to use the mkisofs to create the iso filesystem
for the cdrom.
you could
mkdir /backups
tar clfvz - /var > /backups/var.tgz
tar clfvz - /etc > /backups/etc.tgz

mkisofs -L -l -J -R -A Disc-ID -P Publisher-ID -p Preparer-ID -V Volume-ID /backups/=/backups/ | cdrecord -v -pad -data -multi fs=12m speed=52 dev=0,0,0 driveropts=burnproof -

You seem to be getting confused from all the options specified. You don't need the PublisherID or any of the ID's those are just to help you organize your backups easier. If you don't think you'll use them, leave them out of the equation:
mkisofs -L -l -J -R /backups/=/backups/ | cdrecord <options> -

Whansard:
I tried to mkisofs with the /backups/=/backups/ option, but I get errors. This is the only part of it I don't understand, so could you elaborate, or link to where you got that option from? Maybe my version of mkisofs is too old to handle that option? Or maybe it's been removed on my newer version if yours is older?



Cool

yeah, thats for an old mkisofs. i forgot, i have both a new
and an old.
take out the /backups/=/backups/ and replace with
/backups/
i guess they changed the way they specify a changed
directory name with mkisofs. my old kisocd program
doesn't work with the newer mkisofs because of that.
i completely forgot.

Okay so:

mkdir /backups
tar clfvz - /var > /backups/var.tgz
tar clfvz - /etc > /backups/etc.tgz
mkisofs -L -l -J -R /backups/ | cdrecord -v speed=5 dev=0,0,0 -

hehe is that right?

Looks right to me

Try it on a CDRW first

Cool