If the data is important, then create a script that will inventory (ie, find...) the source and the destination so you know that all the files and directories arrived OK. A shorthand method is to count the number of files (find /dir -type f|wc) and directories (find /dir -type d|wc). For true accuracy, use sum or cksum on files.
NOTE: du and bdf will almost never match the original. While the resultant files and directories will be just fine, the occupied space may be larger or smaller then the original. Here are the scenarios:
Smaller: one or several directories grew with hundreds or thousands of files which were subsequently deleted from the directories. The directory (it is also a file) grew in size for the entries but is never reduced when the files are removed. Copying a diectory with lots of empty slots will produce a new directory without the empty slots and thus the destination takes less space. But both directories behave the same.
Larger: By far the most common scenario especially with database systems. A sparse file is a file where there are only a few occupied records but lots of undefined records. When an undefined record is encountered during a serial read, the result is a string of zeros. So when a sparse file is copied, all the zeros will be written and the copied file may many times larger than the original file. Yet, both files behave exactly the same way with applications.
Bill Hassell, sysadmin
