...making Linux just a little more fun!
[ In reference to "Setting up an Encrypted Debian System" in LG#140 ]
Marius Pana [marius.pana at gmail.com]
There seems to be issues with the cpio (copy command) as it will copy /prov over! for example /proc has 0 disk space used in my / root filesystem. In /tmp/target it now has 4.8GB?! and the cpio operation fails with a no space on device error. I am about to try and change the option to cpio / find and see if I cant get it to work.
Regards,
Marius
Kapil Hari Paranjape [kapil at imsc.res.in]
Hello,
On Sat, 28 Mar 2009, Marius Pana wrote:
> There seems to be issues with the cpio (copy command) as it will copy /prov > over! for example /proc has 0 disk space used in my / root filesystem. > > /tmp/target it now has 4.8GB?! and the cpio operation fails with a no space > on device error. I am about to try and change the option to cpio / find and > see if I cant get it to work.
Sorry for the error in the article! The fault is not 'cpio' but elsewhere.
I seem to have forgotten to put in a description of how to setup the source directory for the copying.
One way to avoid any such paths is to use '-prune' these paths. So the actual find command should have been something like
find / -path '/tmp/target' -prune \
-o -path '/proc' -prune \
-o -path '/sys' -prune \
-o -print
A few more paths should be pruned as well.
A much simpler solution is to create the source directory as follows
mkdir /tmp/source mount --bind / /tmp/source mount --bind /boot /tmp/source/boot etc.
This way you choose each sub-mount that you want to copy. After that you run change directory to /tmp/source before running the 'cpio'.
A different solution is to use the '-xdev' option to 'find' which will skip all the sub-mounts. You will then have to copy over the '/boot' file system by a separate command.
Hope this clarifies.
Regards,
Kapil. --
Ben Okopnik [ben at linuxgazette.net]
On Sat, Mar 28, 2009 at 11:12:10AM +0200, Marius Pana wrote:
> There seems to be issues with the cpio (copy command) as it will copy > /prov over! for example /proc has 0 disk space used in my / root > filesystem. In /tmp/target it now has 4.8GB?! and the cpio operation fails > with a no space on device error. I am about to try and change the option > to cpio / find and see if I cant get it to work.
The standard magic invocation for 'cpio' used for system backup (after you've burned the sacrificial chicken, of course) is
find / -path /proc -prune -o -print0 | cpio -o -0 [other options] > out_file.cpio
...for reasons that you have now discovered. 
-- * Ben Okopnik * Editor-in-Chief, Linux Gazette * http://LinuxGazette.NET *