dumping file system subtree (/var)

[Gary Aitken]

On 06/16/12 10:19, Wojciech Puchar wrote:
>> When I originally set up my SSD, the stuff I was following indicated there was no need to put anythng on a separate filesystem.  I'm now trying to build a backup system on a usb drive and I want a separate /var and /tmp.
>>
>> I had originally set the nodump flag on /tmp and /var, so my snapshot is empty for those.
>>
>> I don't think there's any reason to preserve /tmp, but is there any good way to copy /var from the running system on the SSD to another filesystem (and still preserve everything, including flags)?  My impression is both mksnap_ffs and dump should only be used on a complete filesystem, not a subtree.
>>
>> Or do I need to unset the nodump flag on /var, make a snapshot of /, take a dump :-), and then split the /var out upon restore?
>>
>> And would it be wise to repartition the SSD to put /var and /tmp on their own partitions?
>>
> i really have no idea why you just don't dump it all? restore have -i option that allow you to partially restore files from a dump.
> 
> I have SSD, single partition and i use dump to backup it to external hard disk.
> 
> 
> alternatively - use tar.

What I was trying to achieve, which I haven't done yet, was a smallish dump of the "core system".  By that I mean system + ports, without distfiles, etc.  Then a separate dump of user data, which is considerably larger.  At this point I am thinking I should do this:
  make clean distclean  ports to remove temporary stuff
  set /usr/home NODUMP
  dump /, /var, and /usr
  unset /usr/home NODUMP
  dump /usr/home