misc/62702: backup of /etc and /root durning sysinstall upgrade can loop if user backs up /etc in /root tree

[Scott Anderson]

>Number:         62702
>Category:       misc
>Synopsis:       backup of /etc and /root durning sysinstall upgrade can loop if user backs up /etc in /root tree
>Confidential:   no
>Severity:       non-critical
>Priority:       medium
>Responsible:    freebsd-bugs
>State:          open
>Quarter:        
>Keywords:       
>Date-Required:
>Class:          sw-bug
>Submitter-Id:   current-users
>Arrival-Date:   Wed Feb 11 12:50:15 PST 2004
>Closed-Date:
>Last-Modified:
>Originator:     Scott Anderson
>Release:        4.5-RELEASE
>Organization:
>Environment:
FreeBSD <host> 4.5-RELEASE FreeBSD 4.5-RELEASE #4: Wed Feb  6 20:11:53 GMT 2002     root@:/usr/src/sys/compile/MUNKEY  i386

>Description:
While attempting an upgrade (using '/stand/sysinstall installUpgrade') I ran into a problem where files are copied, hit a recursive loop and potentially continue being copied until the partition is full.

When upgrading via sysinstall, the user (admin) is prompted for a location to backup /etc, if the user backs this up in the /root tree, this problem will be encountered.  Selecting /root doesn't seem like a bad place, and the user isn't warned the next automatic step is that /root will be backed up into the backup of /etc (thus creating the loop).  

A simple prompt not to backup /etc into the /root tree would suffice, or preventing this in the script might be helpful.
>How-To-Repeat:
'/stand/sysinstall installUpgrade'
Choose to backup /etc into /root (/root/backup/etc or some such)

Watch it take a long,long time to backup, wonder what is going on,go have a look in /root/backup/etc and find the huge recursive copy happening (/root/backup/etc/root/backup/etc/root/backup/etc...). :)
>Fix:
      
>Release-Note:
>Audit-Trail:
>Unformatted: