ann kok wrote: > can you tell me what is the exactly command? > > machineA# ssh root at nachineB:tar cvf / ; tar xvf * > You need a - after the f options to represent stdin/stdout and some appropriate quoting. ssh root at machineB 'tar cvf - /' |tar xvf - (and you probably want to use --one-file-system or some excludes to avoid /proc and any NFS/cdrom mounts). But, I'd recommend: rsync -essh machineB:/ . instead (also per filesystem with --one-file-system) - especially if you want to repeat it or restart after interruption. -- Les Mikeselll lesmikesell at gmail.com