[geeks] Copy a linux disk

[Jonathan C. Patschke]

On Sat, 20 May 2006, Sandwich Maker wrote:

> " 1) Is there a better way to copy disks?  On Solaris I would
> " ufsdump/ufsrestory, and likewise on Irix I would use xfsdump/xfsrestore
>
> is there some form of dump/restore [gdump?] in linux?  there oughta
> be.

<quote>

   From:    Linus Torvalds
   To:      Neil Conway
   Subject: Re: [PATCH] SMP race in ext2 - metadata corruption.
   Date:    Fri, 27 Apr 2001 09:59:46 -0700 (PDT)
   Cc:      Kernel Mailing List <linux-kernel At vger Dot kernel Dot org>

   [ linux-kernel added back as a cc ]

   On Fri, 27 Apr 2001, Neil Conway wrote:
   > > I'm surprised that dump is deprecated (by you at least ;-)).  What
   > > to
   > use instead for backups on machines that can't umount disks
   > regularly?

   Note that dump simply won't work reliably at all even in 2.4.x: the
   buffer cache and the page cache (where all the actual data is) are not
   coherent. This is only going to get even worse in 2.5.x, when the
   directories are moved into the page cache as well.

   So anybody who depends on "dump" getting backups right is already
   playing Russian roulette with their backups.  It's not at all
   guaranteed to get the right results - you may end up having stale data
   in the buffer cache that ends up being "backed up".

   Dump was a stupid program in the first place. Leave it behind.

</quote>

I'm glad I run AIX, Solaris, and BSD.

-- 
Jonathan Patschke   )  "The telephone is an antiquity...it is an
Elgin, TX          (   outmoded device which constantly disrupts
USA                 )  work."        --Ralf Huetter of Kraftwerk