[K12OSN] backing up user prefs & docs
"Terrell Prudé, Jr."
microman at cmosnetworks.com
Thu Oct 21 11:41:13 UTC 2004
Debbie Schiel wrote:
> Hi all,
>
> This is probably a simple task but I don't know how to do it.
>
> I just want to make a backup of a user's files & prefs & settings, eg:
> 'guest'
>
> I copied the /home/guest folder as root (so included hidden files).
> Then I created user 'guest' with same user ID & password on another
> machine and replaced the /home/guest folder with the one I had just
> copied.
> Resulted in errors when I tried to log in as guest.
>
> If this is the way one is supposed to do it (i.e. just a straight copy
> of /home/user) then I can work on the errors and try fix whatever I've
> done wrong. But is there a "proper" way of backing up user prefs & docs?
>
> Thanks,
>
> Debbie
You want to throw a few more switches, like so:
cp -rp /home/guest /my/backup/place
The "r" does a recursive copy, and the "p" preserves permissions, file
creation/modification times, etc.
One other tidbit: since this is GNU/Linux that we're talking about
here, you can also add the "v" ("verbose") switch so that you can see
each file as it's copied; I always do this whenever possible. Thus, the
command I use in actual practice is as follows:
cp -rpv /source/tree /my/backup/place
Note that the -v switch is one of the famous GNU extensions to the
original UNIX command set, i. e. it's not supported on "stock" HP-UX,
OpenBSD, and a few others, unless you install the GNU versions on those
operating systems. I always do this at the earliest opportunity.
--TP
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