Jeffrey Metcalf wrote: > Hi, > > I'm hoping I can start a brief thread discussing the potential risks involved with backing up live mounted (RW) ext2/3/4 filesystems using dump(8). Here are the reasons I ask this: > > 1. My understanding is that it is safest to dump unmounted > filesystems to ensure all buffers are flushed and all files on the > device are consistent and up-to-date. However... > 2. Performing filesystem dumps can be a time consuming process and > therefore taking the extra time to boot to level 1 and mount / RO to > access utilities just adds additional work. Booting to read-only > media with utilities is just as time consuming. If you put the filesystem of interest on its own partition, then ISTM you can mount -o remount,ro that one file system, and it should remain static during the backup. All data will still be available, though unmodifiable. Clearly, one would need to do something like an lsof to ensure that nobody is using it when the remount takes place. Mike -- p="p=%c%s%c;main(){printf(p,34,p,34);}";main(){printf(p,34,p,34);} Oppose globalization and One World Governments like the UN. This message made from 100% recycled bits. You have found the bank of Larn. I speak only for myself, and I am unanimous in that! -- users mailing list users@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx To unsubscribe or change subscription options: https://admin.fedoraproject.org/mailman/listinfo/users Guidelines: http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Mailing_list_guidelines