[lbackup-discussion] volume paths confusion

[henri]

Hi Scott,

One thing to be aware of is that LBackup is not designed for full  
system bootable backups. Although, it is probably possible to make  
this work it will most certainly require some custom post/pre hook  
scripts.

The following link has details regarding alternative backup systems if  
you are looking for a bootable backup : http://connect.homeunix.com/lbackup/about#alternatives_to_lbackup

If you are backing up the root directory on Mac OS X then you may wish  
to consider the recommendations regarding disabling all of the  
standard Mac OS 10.5 files and directories and then adding in  
directories and files as required. Details are available from the  
following URL :
http://www.connect.homeunix.com/lbackup/full_system_backup

> backupSource="/Volumes/boot-drive"
The backup source above is a symbolic link. LBackup would attempt to  
backup this as a symbolic link rather than traverse the contents of  
this link. This behavior may be altered by modifing the source code or  
expelling why you believe the behavior should be different or why  
there should be an option.


> This backup happened in seconds.  I would guess that all it did was  
> make some links.  So this tells me, I believe, that if the primary  
> drive goes down, I have a useless backup, is that correct?
Yes, I believe that this is just a backup of a symbolic link.


> backupSource="/"
In order to back up the entire contents of the boot drive, the example  
above is the correct value to use for the backupSource.


> This is taking a considerable amount of time, so I suspect this is  
> what I want.  Can I get some clarification on how this works with  
> paths?
Please let me know if you require any further clarification.

> What command would I use in the shell to tell which files are real  
> files, and which ones are just hard links off to other files?
You can probably use the 'ls' command. I would recommend that you  
issue the following command :
I would recommend that you issue the following :

	"ls -la /Volumes/"

This will list the long format of the "/Volumes/" directory and will  
also list invisible files.
Note that the "l" at the start of the line indicates a symbolic link.  
A hard link on the other hand is slightly more difficult to spot as it  
is not a traditional shortcut (Windows) or alias (Mac OS). I would  
recommend the "Basic Backup Local Machine" (takes a while to load)  
screen-cast available from the following URL : http://connect.homeunix.com/lbackup/screencasts

Another good reference regarding hard links is wikipedia : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hard_link

Keep in mind that LBackup is not designed for full system bootable  
backups. LBackup is aimed at providing reliable user-data backups.  
However, this is not to say that full system backup is not possible  
with LBackup.

LBackup is a great way for some people to backup various changes to  
non-user-data directories, between full system backups.

Finally, you may be interested in the latest (2009-August-21st) alpha  
version of LBackup which has various additional features and minor bug- 
fixes :

http://www.lucidsystems.org/download/utilities/LBackup_v0.9.8r-alpha7.dmg

Should you like any further assistance or if you have any further  
questions then please let me know.

I hope this help.s

Keep in touch.




On 21/08/2009, at 11:43 AM, Scott Haneda wrote:

> I am not sure how to tell the version of lbackup I am using, but I  
> did just download it today.  I am using:
>
> $rsync --version
> rsync  version 3.0.6  protocol version 30
>
> It is patched as best as I can tell.
>
> Today was my first effort to use the scripts.  I am trying to backup  
> one boot volume to a second volume. Two different distinct drives.
>
> First I did this
> backupSource="/Volumes/boot-drive"
> backupDest="/Volumes/secondary/backups/daily"
>
> This backup happened in seconds.  I would guess that all it did was  
> make some links.  So this tells me, I believe, that if the primary  
> drive goes down, I have a useless backup, is that correct?
>
> Now I am doing this:
> backupSource="/"
> backupDest="/Volumes/secondary/backups/daily"
>
> This is taking a considerable amount of time, so I suspect this is  
> what I want.  Can I get some clarification on how this works with  
> paths?
>
> A second backup scenario, is to copy one directory from one drive,  
> to a directory on another drive. On this one, I used full paths, and  
> it took a while, so I feel relatively confident that it made actual  
> data copies:
>
> backupSource="/Volumes/secondary/MailStore"
> backupDest="/Volumes/boot-drive/Users/me/backups/mail-rotations"
>
> Why did this one work correct, and the first one did not?  What  
> command would I use in the shell to tell which files are real files,  
> and which ones are just hard links off to other files?
>
> Here is the log from the first backup, where I am trying to clone  
> the boot volume to a second source:
>     ##################
>     Thu Aug 20 15:57:46 PDT 2009
>
>     First Run Full Copy...
>     Synchronizing...
>
>     Number of files: 1
>     Number of files transferred: 0
>     Total file size: 1 bytes
>     Total transferred file size: 0 bytes
>     Literal data: 0 bytes
>     Matched data: 0 bytes
>     File list size: 32
>     File list generation time: 0.001 seconds
>     File list transfer time: 0.000 seconds
>     Total bytes sent: 44
>     Total bytes received: 15
>
>     sent 44 bytes  received 15 bytes  118.00 bytes/sec
>     total size is 1  speedup is 0.02
>
>     Rotating Backups...
>     Performing Atomic Swap...
>     Backup Completed Successfully
>
> As you can see, not a lot happened.
>
> Here is the log from the second scenrio, which had what looks to me  
> to be a correct backup
>     ##################
>     Thu Aug 20 15:49:10 PDT 2009
>
>     Hard Links Enabled
>     Synchronizing...
>     Creating Links
>
>     Number of files: 2912
>     Number of files transferred: 115
>     Total file size: 4644344476 bytes
>     Total transferred file size: 130526586 bytes
>     Literal data: 130526663 bytes
>     Matched data: 0 bytes
>     File list size: 95677
>     File list generation time: 0.001 seconds
>     File list transfer time: 0.000 seconds
>     Total bytes sent: 130643835
>     Total bytes received: 2954
>
>     sent 130643835 bytes  received 2954 bytes  11360590.35 bytes/sec
>     total size is 4644344476  speedup is 35.55
>
>     Rotating Backups...
>     Performing Atomic Swap...
>     Backup Completed Successfully
>
> -- 
> Scott * If you contact me off list replace talklists@ with scott@ *
>
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