Re: [gentoo-server] Restoring File Systems

[Kerin Millar]

Karl Zander wrote:
> I have a partition with ReiserFS.  Its backed up to DLT tape.  If I ever
> have to restore those files from tape, could they be restored to
> different type of file system like ext3?    I have another server up but

You don't mention the software that you are using but, unless you are
using dump (or a variant), the answer is almost certainly yes.

> it does not use ReiserFS.  In a pinch I could restore files to that
> server.   I am not sure if there is anything special about the file
> system on the server and the files written to tape that makes the files
> dependent on the file system.

Not really, unless you are using POSIX ACLs. Programs such as GNU tar
and AMANDA (which uses tar in any case) will not backup ACL metadata.
The only program that I know of which will backup and restore ACL
metadata is star, which is available in portage. If you do not use
star then one could engineer a workaround - namely, dumping the ACL
information using getfacl into a plain text file which is backed up
also. It should be relatively simple then to reapply the ACL attributes
using setfacl in conjuction with that file after a restore operation.

Even in that scenario, the filesystem should not matter provided that it
supports POSIX ACLs. That includes ext3, xfs and - since the addition in
2.6.6 of Chris Mason's reiserfs patches - reiserfs. That is to say, the
ACL information will be restored correctly no matter which filesystem is
used.

None of that is pertinent as far as conventional POISX permissions are
concerned. Those will be covered adequately by any tool you should care
to use although, in the case of GNU tar, you need to remember to use the
-p parameter. Star will do that automatically, but the -acl paramter
must be specified in order to deal with POSIX ACLs.

Regards,

--Kerin Francis Millar