As root, I executed the following command in the / directory:
{Alot of files scrolling down}
./proc/1118/root
./proc/1118/exe
./proc/1118/mounts
./opt/
./floppy/
./cdrom/
./initrd/
./vmlinuz.old
./sys/
./bkroot/
./bkroot/lost+found/
tar: ./bkroot/backup.tar: file is the archive; not dumped
tar: Error exit delayed from previous errors

Then it ended with the above error.

What is the right command (apparently mine is wrong since it ended with an error) to backup everything from / down to all subdirectories to /bkroot/backup.tar ?

Thanks

keep it simple
tar cvf backup.tar *

I'm only have sufficient disk space on /bkroot, which is on another physical harddisk. So, to use your command, I'll have to do What does the asterisk mean? Will your command tar all files under / directory into backup.tar?

Thanks again !

i guess it would be for example

I've the verbose output while it is archiving piped to grep ^tar with the following results:

tar: ./tmp/.X11-unix/X64: socket ignored
tar: ./tmp/.X11-unix/X0: socket ignored
tar: ./tmp/.font-unix/fs7100: socket ignored
tar: ./dev/log: socket ignored
tar: ./proc/kcore: File shrank by 545927168 bytes; padding with zeros
tar: ./proc/2/exe: Cannot readlink: No such file or directory
tar: ./proc/3/exe: Cannot readlink: No such file or directory
tar: ./proc/4/exe: Cannot readlink: No such file or directory
tar: ./proc/5/exe: Cannot readlink: No such file or directory
tar: ./proc/6/exe: Cannot readlink: No such file or directory
tar: ./proc/7/exe: Cannot readlink: No such file or directory
tar: ./proc/94/exe: Cannot readlink: No such file or directory
tar: ./proc/124/exe: Cannot readlink: No such file or directory
tar: ./proc/951/exe: Cannot readlink: No such file or directory
tar: ./proc/1432/fd/4: Cannot stat: No such file or directory
tar: ./bkroot/backup.tar: file is the archive; not dumped
tar: Error exit delayed from previous errors

Any advice?

Thanks

You are attempting to tar your backup file.

What distro are you running? You do not need to backup all directories. Like lost+found, /tmp and even /proc. See man pages for tar on excluding directories.

I'm trying to transfer my entire system to a new harddisk. If I exclude /proc, /dev, lost+found, can my new harddisk boot up without those directories? Will they be created on the new harddisk's first boot-up?

Thanks !
Running Debian 'Sarge'

Why not mount the drive and copy the files using the cp command. You can preserve permissions as well as copy subdirectories.

Assuming /dev/hdb2 is my new harddisk, is the following command correct to copy the entire system(everything from / directory onwards) ?

Thanks

Make it commands and it should work
mount /dev/hdb2 /bkroot
cp -pR /* /bkroot/

The system seems to be in a indefinite loop during the copy process. I'm not sure, but I suspect it is because /bkroot is a sub directory of /, so by coping recursively, it will fall into a indefinitely loop? Just a guess...

Is there any arguement that can be used to exclude /bkroot in the copy process?

Thanks