Hi,
I've recently switched to CentOS 5.0 from RedHat 9.0 and found a new directory /proc which contains "virtual" files according to the docs. When I try to run my normal backup which uses cpio to create archives, it complains about not being able to access many files in the /proc directory. This is also true of some files in /sys/devices.
Searching for something that wouldn't have this problem, I tried mondorescue. One of the first things I noticed is, by default, mondorescue skips the /proc directory. Does anyone know the details of my observations here? Are these files automatically generated at runtime?
Thanks is advance for any insight someone can provide here!
John
On Jan 10, 2008 6:18 PM, Krautkramer, John John.Krautkramer@micrel.com wrote:
Searching for something that wouldn't have this problem, I tried mondorescue. One of the first things I noticed is, by default, mondorescue skips the /proc directory. Does anyone know the details of my observations here? Are these files automatically generated at runtime?
Thanks is advance for any insight someone can provide here!
/proc and /sys are essentially 'runtime' filesystems which provide information about your system, including memory use, available hardware, various performance settings, etc. The files in here can vary greatly and should not be backed up like you would with /usr/ or /var/. Mostly, you should skip /proc and /sys for your backup procedures.
Jim Perrin wrote:
/proc and /sys are essentially 'runtime' filesystems which provide information about your system, including memory use, available hardware, various performance settings, etc. The files in here can vary greatly and should not be backed up like you would with /usr/ or /var/. Mostly, you should skip /proc and /sys for your backup procedures.
Exactly. I can't think of any reason at all why you'd want to back up the contents of /proc unless you absolutely needed a snapshot of the system at a point in time for forensic reasons.
Cheers,
On Thursday 10 January 2008 23:18:33 Krautkramer, John wrote:
Hi,
I've recently switched to CentOS 5.0 from RedHat 9.0 and found a new directory /proc which contains "virtual" files according to the docs. When I try to run my normal backup which uses cpio to create archives, it complains about not being able to access many files in the /proc directory. This is also true of some files in /sys/devices.
Searching for something that wouldn't have this problem, I tried mondorescue. One of the first things I noticed is, by default, mondorescue skips the /proc directory. Does anyone know the details of my observations here? Are these files automatically generated at runtime?
Thanks is advance for any insight someone can provide here!
John
Yes, the /proc directory basically contains information on the running kernel and should never be backed up.
Tony
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Chris Mauritz -
Jim Perrin -
Krautkramer, John -
Tony Molloy