tar Syntax Help
Drew Tomlinson
drew at mykitchentable.net
Fri Jul 8 03:20:55 GMT 2005
I'm trying to copy an entire file system while using an exclude file to
avoid copying things such as /dev, /proc, etc. I've read the man page
and found the -X or --exclude-from tar option. I've create a file
called /exclude.list. It contains lines such as:
/exclude.list
/dev
/proc
But I can't figure out how to form the correct command line. I
basically want to do this:
tar -cvf - --exclude-from /exclude.list -C / . | tar xpf - -C .
I've search the web and found examples that look similar to the above
but this does not work for me. tar attempts to copy /dev and I get all
the associated errors. I've tried other placements of either "-X", "X",
and "--exclude from" on the command line various things happen from it
just being ignored to tar thinking I want to create and archive named
"-X", etc., to tar trying to add a file named "-X", etc. to the current
archive. I'm at a loss.
I'm using 4.11 and trying to make a good backup before upgrading to
5.4. Can anyone tell me the secret incantation to make this work?
Thanks,
Drew
--
Visit The Alchemist's Warehouse
Magic Tricks, DVDs, Videos, Books, & More!
http://www.alchemistswarehouse.com
More information about the freebsd-questions
mailing list