[gentoo-user] RFC : fast copying of a whole directory tree

[Helmut Jarausch]

Hi,

when copying a whole directory tree with standard tools, e.g.
tar cf - . | ( cd $DEST && tar xf - )
or  cpio -p ...

the source disk is busy seeking. That's noisy and particularly slow.

I've written a small Python program which outputs the file names in
i-node order. If this is fed into tar or cpio nearly no seeks are 
required during copying.

I've tested it by comparing the resulting copied tree to one created by 
tar | tar.

But it's correctness for backing up data is critical.
Therefore I'd like to ask for comments.

Thanks for any comments,
Helmut.