From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Received: from pigeon.gentoo.org ([208.92.234.80] helo=lists.gentoo.org) by finch.gentoo.org with esmtp (Exim 4.60) (envelope-from ) id 1OHJdo-0007lo-AO for garchives@archives.gentoo.org; Wed, 26 May 2010 16:39:36 +0000 Received: from pigeon.gentoo.org (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by pigeon.gentoo.org (Postfix) with SMTP id 4FAE2E0967; Wed, 26 May 2010 16:38:30 +0000 (UTC) Received: from smtp.cs.nyu.edu (SMTP.CS.NYU.EDU [128.122.80.33]) by pigeon.gentoo.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 32B84E0967 for ; Wed, 26 May 2010 16:38:30 +0000 (UTC) Received: from ajglap.localdomain (c-65-96-16-249.hsd1.ma.comcast.net [65.96.16.249]) (authenticated bits=0) by smtp.cs.nyu.edu (8.14.3/8.14.4) with ESMTP id o4QGcTrx012088 (version=TLSv1/SSLv3 cipher=DHE-RSA-AES256-SHA bits=256 verify=NOT) for ; Wed, 26 May 2010 12:38:29 -0400 (EDT) Received: by ajglap.localdomain (Postfix, from userid 1502) id 61BDC19D923; Wed, 26 May 2010 12:38:29 -0400 (EDT) From: Allan Gottlieb To: gentoo-user@lists.gentoo.org Subject: Re: [gentoo-user] Performing a backup during the boot sequence References: <4BFD3B99.20802@admin-box.com> Date: Wed, 26 May 2010 12:38:29 -0400 In-Reply-To: <4BFD3B99.20802@admin-box.com> (Daniel Troeder's message of "Wed, 26 May 2010 17:17:45 +0200") Message-ID: User-Agent: Gnus/5.13 (Gnus v5.13) Emacs/23.1 (gnu/linux) Precedence: bulk List-Post: List-Help: List-Unsubscribe: List-Subscribe: List-Id: Gentoo Linux mail X-BeenThere: gentoo-user@lists.gentoo.org Reply-to: gentoo-user@lists.gentoo.org MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii X-Archives-Salt: a363dabf-7fe7-4271-a38a-2b06cc9745bc X-Archives-Hash: 37e2cd66428bf9e6ce66ada0e739746e At Wed, 26 May 2010 17:17:45 +0200 Daniel Troeder wrote: > On 05/26/2010 12:30 AM, Allan Gottlieb wrote: >> For quite a while I have used the following steps to perform a >> "single-user backup" >> >> 1. Boot to single user mode via the grub command >> kernel /boot/vmlinuz root=/dev/sda6 single >> >> 2. Type in the root password. >> >> 3. Execute a single command >> /usr/local/sbin/ajg-backup-init-3 >> which does the backup and then executes >> init 3 >> >> 4. This gets me to multi-user mode. >> >> I would like to automate this so that booting directly to multi-user >> mode via >> kernel /boot/vmlinuz root=/dev/sda6 >> >> All I need to do is to execute the single command >> /usr/local/sbin/ajg-backup-init-3 >> at the right moment. >> This didn't seem hard; I want it after everything in boot but before >> everything currently in default. So I was going to put it in >> default with a "before *" in depend() >> >> Reading the gentoo handbook chapter B4.d "Writing Init Scripts" >> I find two comments criticizing this approach >> >> 1. "You can also use the "*" glob [argument to before] to catch all >> services in the same runlevel, although this isn't advisable". >> >> 2. "Note: Make sure that --exec actually calls a service and not just a >> shell script that launches services and exits -- that's what the >> init script is supposed to do." >> >> I can see problems with multiple "before *" directives, but no other >> script has one so I think I would be OK with my "before *". >> >> Criticism 2 has me concerned since my backup routing is indeed a shell >> script that exits. Indeed, my backup is not really a service so I am >> worried that I shouldn't be using an initscript at all. >> >> Any advice/comments would be welcome. >> > You could create a LVM-snapshot of the partition/data you wish to backup > at "before *" or inside "boot" and then later run the backup on the > mounted snapshot, removing it afterwards. Thanks, but I am not trying to minimize the boot time. The disk to disk dumps are fast enough (I do the slower copy to a remote site after logged in). I am just trying to have the dump done at the right point in the boot sequence without manually going into single user mode. If I could automate the snapshot, I could automate the dump. Indeed rereading the gentoo manual, I see that the requirement that you invoke a service and not a script that exits, applies only to start-stop-daemon, so I will just try to invoke my script directly from the init script. allan