Copying files between systems but not link files

[Simon R Wootton]

I have two systems and want to copy the contents of :

/data1
/data2
/data3
/data4

from one machine to another. My problem is that the original machine has several link files linking directories eg.

/data2/abc/tst -> /abc/tst

When copying the data, it appears to physically copy the data from the link and not the link file.

I'm using rcp to copy between machines but I don't want to copy link files.

Can anyone help ? Points allocated for valuable help !

[Robert-Jan Goossens · Accepted solution]

Hi,

# find /dir | cpio -ov | remsh server; cd /dir | cpio -idvum

Hope it helps,

Robert-Jan.

[S.K. Chan]

I'm using cpio to copy data from one machine to another, preserving the symbolic link and the file attributes. Setup remsh capability (this can be temporary if security risk is a concern) between machine A and B. Say you wanted to copy /data2 (in machine A) to /data2 (in machine B) , you can run this ..
On machine A
=============
# cd /data2
# (find . -xdev|cpio -coax) | remsh machineB "cd /data2;cpio -icdmula"
I've been using this method for quite some time now.

[S.K. Chan]

You can drop the "x" in the first cpio since you're not dealing with device file. Sorry ..

[S.K. Chan]

Since I'm in it, might as well post another option of doing this. If you're running it from machine B, then ..
# cd /data2
# remsh machineA "cd /data2;find . -xdev|cpio -coa"|cpio -icdmula

[Robert-Jan Goossens]

Mr Chan is correct

I missed the quotes

# find /dir | cpio -ov | remsh server " cd /dir ; cpio -idvum"

sorry,

Robert-Jan.

[Geoff Wild]

Here's what I do:

nfs mount the remote machine.

cd on the local machine to the top level directory, then:

find . -depth -print | cpio -pdxm /newlocaldir/


Rgds...Geoff

[Bill Douglass]

We use OpenSSH for communicating between hosts. Here's an example using these:

tar cf - /data1 /data2 /data3 /data4 | ssh host2 tar xf -

tar will write its archive to standard output (- option), which is piped into the ssh command.

ssh in turns sends the output to host2, where it is fed as standard input to the tar command there.

[Simon R Wootton]

Thanks to all for your help. I will look into the options today and have a go this weekend.

Regards
Simon

[Gary Yu]

Hi ,

you can tar the directory first, then rcp to the other server, then untar it.

tar will not include the real datafile of a link but only the link itself.

thanks,
Gary