[ILUG] Copying directory trees

[Rick Moen]

Quoting Brendan Halpin (brendan.halpin at ul.ie):

> Say I want to move /usr/local to a new partition: what's the least
> error-prone way of doing the copy?

Covered to death at "Copying Directory Trees" on
http://linuxmafia.com/kb/Admin .

If using GNU cp (standard on Linux but not most other Unixen):

Make sure the new location (directory) exists, has correct ownership and
permissions.  If you're going to move files of diverse ownership, su to
root.  Mount the new location to a temporary mount.

> cp to the new location, 

# cp -ax olddirectory newdirectory

(The "x" is mostly needed to avoid picking up /proc when moving files
closer to the system root, but it's a good habit to get into.)

Compare trees to make sure you didn't mess up, umount the temporary
destination mount, and only then....

> delete old, 

umount old if it's on its own partition.

> edit fstab, mount new partition?

Do the mount by executing "mount -a" and then verifying that the Right
Thing happens.



If using GNU tar (standard on Linux but not most other Unixen):

Make sure the new location (directory) exists, has correct ownership and
permissions.  If you're going to move files of diverse ownership, su to
root.  Mount the new location to a temporary mount.

> tar /usr/local, 

# (cd olddirectory && 'tar Sczpf - . ) | (cd newdirectory && tar Sxvzpf -)

Proceed as above.

-- 
Cheers,                   The cynics among us might say:   "We laugh, 
Rick Moen                 monkeyboys -- Linux IS the mainstream UNIX now!
rick at linuxmafia.com       MuaHaHaHa!" but that would be rude. -- Jim Dennis