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Re: Squeeze snapshot

Fri Mar 29, 2013 5:43 pm

No, not squeeze.
I would check, but am not sure if i still got a squeeze download
(and for some weird reasons i hesitate to download it these days, ... old-stable soon ... yada)
I would not know what might be different (but you never know).
Perhaps i will get in the mood, perhaps not.

I never was a big fan of using an exclude file (it _is the better option, that is not the point).
You could try to edit the script and replace exclude-from=file with --exclude="/full/path/folder" --exclude="/full/path/next-folder"
Just open the script and search for rsync (via pattern, not manually, duh), there should be the command somewhere.
Shooting in the dark, aka: that is what i would _try.

I would say: There is a how-to-create-a-live-from-your-install-manually somehwere,
but i am quite sure that the only way to reliably exclude files is refractasnapshot.

Re: Squeeze snapshot

Fri Mar 29, 2013 8:06 pm

When i discovered the same problem i wrote:
edited "/usr/lib/refractasnapshot/snapshot_exclude.list":
# Examples of things to exclude in order to keep the image small:
- /home/username/Downloads/*
- /home/*/Videos/*
Both excludes failed.


I for one am completely lost why it fails, when it works and anything else between earth and sky.
Last edited by nadir on Thu Apr 04, 2013 7:26 pm, edited 2 times in total.

Re: Squeeze snapshot

Fri Mar 29, 2013 8:36 pm

Thank you soooo much for confirming. I really, REALLY need to get this working. Just how to do that? I suppose I could a) rename Videos or b) move to another folder that does get excluded like Documents.

Re: Squeeze snapshot

Fri Mar 29, 2013 8:56 pm

Set the config file to allow you to edit the boot menu. The script will pause just before it squashes the filesystem. You can then go into /home/work/myfs and delete anything you don't want. When you close the text editor, the script will proceed.

Maybe...
Change the format in the excludes file so that /home/*/Videos/* is just /home/*/Videos or even replace the * with your username. I don't understand why it's not working.

Maybe...
Use the version of refractasnapshot that came with the squeeze version of refracta - that would be 9.0.2. I can't think of any reason that this would work, but I've seen other weirdness with rsync.

Re: Squeeze snapshot

Fri Mar 29, 2013 11:00 pm

Just a thought..

I always believed excludes needed paths relative to the source, e.g. "home/*/*" rather than "/home/*/*"

I don't know rsync that well, maybe that's not true (or not entirely true) but I used it before and seen it work with relative paths.

A long shot but there's something to test in a squeeze environment at least (remove the leading /)

Also I'm not sure if the preceeding "- " is necessary unless you are using filters rather than excludes (filters can have includes as well as excludes)

Re: Squeeze snapshot

Sat Mar 30, 2013 1:29 am

Just remembered I have a basic refracta squeeze install on the other box. Will try various things mentioned here to see if I can get an image with proper excludes.

And FYI, I have always used this format in rsync when backing up files in /home/user:
Code:
--exclude /.local/share/Trash/

Re: Squeeze snapshot

Sat Mar 30, 2013 2:55 am

if the pattern starts with a / then it is anchored to a particular spot in the hierarchy of files, otherwise it is matched against the end of the pathname. This is similar to a leading ^ in regular expressions. Thus "/foo" would match a name of "foo" at either the "root of the transfer" (for a global rule) or in the merge-file’s directory (for a per-directory rule). An unqualified "foo" would match a name of "foo" anywhere in the tree because the algorithm is applied recursively from the top down; it behaves as if each path component gets a turn at being the end of the filename. Even the unanchored "sub/foo" would match at any point in the hierarchy where a "foo" was found within a directory named "sub". See the section on ANCHORING INCLUDE/EXCLUDE PATTERNS for a full discussion of how to specify a pattern that matches at the root of the transfer.


So ignore what I posted earier, a leading / in an rsync exclude means an anchor, not an absolute path. ( / just happens also to be our "source root") The exclude.list is correct.

The order they go in only matters if "includes" are also used

Re: Squeeze snapshot

Sat Mar 30, 2013 3:34 am

Needless to say I am a bit lost but for what it is worth...

On my squeeze install....

I installed refractasnapshot-base_9.0.8-2_all.deb
created various files/folders
edited /usr/lib/refractasnapshot/snapshot_exclude.list to
# Examples of things to exclude in order to keep the image small:
- /home/*/Downloads/*
- /home/*/Music/*
- /home/*/Pictures/*
- /home/*/Templates/*
- /home/*/Documents/*
- /home/*/Videos/*

edited /etc/refractasnapshot.conf to
save_work="yes"

ran refractasnapshot


Code:
root@debian:/home/user# ls /home/user/*
/home/user/debian-package-default.txt

/home/user/Desktop:
debian-package-default.txt  Downloads

/home/user/Documents:
debian-package-default.txt

/home/user/Downloads:
refractasnapshot-base_9.0.8-2_all  refractasnapshot-base_9.0.8-2_all.deb

/home/user/Music:
debian-package-default.txt

/home/user/Pictures:
debian-package-default.txt

/home/user/Public:
debian-package-default.txt

/home/user/Templates:
debian-package-default.txt

/home/user/Videos:
debian-package-default.txt
root@debian:/home/user#




Code:
root@debian:/home/user# ls /home/work/myfs/home/user/*
/home/work/myfs/home/user/debian-package-default.txt

/home/work/myfs/home/user/Desktop:
debian-package-default.txt  Downloads

/home/work/myfs/home/user/Documents:

/home/work/myfs/home/user/Downloads:

/home/work/myfs/home/user/Music:

/home/work/myfs/home/user/Pictures:

/home/work/myfs/home/user/Public:
debian-package-default.txt

/home/work/myfs/home/user/Templates:

/home/work/myfs/home/user/Videos:
root@debian:/home/user#



seems to be working fine

Re: Squeeze snapshot

Sat Mar 30, 2013 4:18 am

Now I'm lost . . .

Re: Squeeze snapshot

Tue Apr 02, 2013 9:54 pm

HOLY MOLY!! Just created a 1.6 gb snapshot of squeeze with all the excludes intact!!!!!! In fact I'm posting from the live disk now.

I made two changes to the excludes file:

1. Instead of /home/*/ I substituted /home/myusername/ in every exclude that contained that string.

2. I removed the trailing slash on the directories so - /home/myusername/Documents* instead of - /home/*/Documents/*

Snapshot took very little time to copy and squash. I am sooo happy that I now have a backup of my working media apps on squeeze.

Only one more question . . . this install uses an nvidia driver that is updated with dkms. Current kernel is linux-image-2.6.32-5-686. What would happen if I try to install this image to another machine? Will it black screen and require fetching another kernel? Want to be prepared and have a strategy to deal with it. (Will test it out the live disk later on my other older machine. Will be interesting to see if it chokes . . .)
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