Please wrap your text. q wrote:
> [...] i've become interested in backing up my /home/foo directory (by: > tar cvzf <backup_file_name>.tar.gz *). > > i've noticed that such backup does not include my /home/foo/.* > (hidden) files, like .muttrc.... $ man bash [...] When a pattern is used for pathname expansion, the character ``.'' at the start of a name or immediately following a slash must be matched explicitly, [...] Try "echo *" to see this in action-- it won't list your . files. Try this to create a complete archive of your home directory: $ tar cvzf backup.tar.gz /home/foo Finally, if you're kernel is panic-ing a lot, try mounting all your filesystems with the "sync" option to reduce the severity of the fs corruption.
