On Wed, 7 May 1997, Robert D. Hilliard wrote:
> On Date: Wed, 07 May 1997 "David B. Teague" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> > On Tue, 6 May 1997, Robert D. Hilliard wrote:
> >
> > > cp -ax certainly is much simpler than using find and cpio. Is
> > > there any option to cp (I can't find one) that would keep it from
> > > copying /proc, like the -prune option in find?
> >
> > Isn't /proc a mounted file system, even if it is a pseudo file system?
> > Doesn't that make x option (which prevents other mounted file systems
> > from being copied) the solution to this problem?
>
> Apparently not. I made a directory /newproc and tried cp with
> the following results:
>
> root:vc-6:~>cp -a -x /proc /newproc
> root:vc-6:~>du -s /proc
> 0 /proc
> root:vc-6:~>du -s /newproc
> 23936 /newproc
>
> I stopped the copy with ^C when I got tired of watching it sit
> there, so /newproc might have grown larger if I had more patience.
>
This is not an adequate test of the feature. You have side stepped the -x
lockout by specifying you wish to copy the file system /proc. The proper
opperation of -x would only keep other file systems, mounted on /proc,
from being copied. The reason /newproc grows indefinately is that /proc is
always having new data added to it. The /proc file system knows how to
"replace" old data with new, but the ext2 file system just keeps adding
the new data to the old files.
I have a test machine with two Linux partitions. One partition has a
"standard" system installed, the other was empty. I mounted the second
partition on /mnt and did:
cp -a -x / /mnt
When the prompt returned, everything but /mnt and /proc could be found on
the /mnt partition. I added these two mount points, edited /etc/fstab and
changed the mount partition to the new one and rebooted. I didn't have
time to try anything "difficult", but the system seems to be complete and
functional. (at least I could log in, mount the old partition, and run mc)
This process DOES work with the GNU cp provided with the Debian system.
Luck,
Dwarf
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