[lug] dump, cp

[Michael J. Hammel]

Thus spoke D. Stimits
> However, this apparently does a raw output format, and is no longer
> mountable as ext2. One thing I don't care for is that I can't simply
> mount it and browse files.

Correct.  dump is a raw data format.  Would you really want an exact ext2
copy on the second disk that was mountable?  After all, that would mean *2*
root partitions!  Imagine if any old user could accomplish that!

> Does anyone know a way to make cp ignore /proc/ when using cp? Or maybe
> there is simply some good software that would make all of this trivial?

We just covered this, actually.  See discussions on tar, cpio and the ilk.
Tar will accept a file listing the files to copy (-T, I think) or listing 
the files to exclude (-X).  Strung together in a series of commands reading
from stdin you can accomplish exactly what you're looking for here on a
local (or even NFS mounted) system.  

There are lots of other ways too.  I'm sure we're about to hear them all.  ;-)

> Until I get a real tape drive, what would be the best means of backup
> software?

rsync -rv between two machines.  The former is the production box, the
latter is the backup box, and it can be automated in all sorts of manner.
I suggest this only because I think it's a clever solution that's a cheap
way to make use of an old 386/486 *IF* it will handle a big enough hard
drive.  If it doesn't, you might be able to put in a bunch of smaller
drives and use rsync to backup partitions to different disks.

Anyway, there are lots of little options like this.  I'm sure a simple disk
mirroring package exists too since making exact duplicates of hard disks in a
production environment is a common tasks for many IS departments.  I just
don't happen to know of any such packages.
-- 
Michael J. Hammel           |
The Graphics Muse           |  Why is the man who invests all your money called
mjhammel at graphics-muse.org  |  a broker?
http://www.graphics-muse.com