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I'm backing up a Linux machine (Ubuntu 10.04) with rsync over SSH.

If I specify for my path something like "home/jason" it works just fine. "home/jason" is translated into "/home/jason". But how do I back up my root directory, i.e. "/"? Logic would have it that, since a slash gets slapped onto the front of whatever you put for path, a blank path would come through as "/". That's not the case, though. A trick like "home/../" doesn't work, either.

How do I back up the root directory?

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3 Answers

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I take it you've tried "/"? If that didn't work, what exactly were the symptoms?

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The option I use is "Remote: Rsync Server". Since I'm doing a remote backup with rsync, I don't think "Volume: c" would make sense. If I select "Volume: c", the "Host" field gets disabled and other pertinent fields go away as well. Let me know if I'm misunderstanding. – Jason Swett Oct 7 '10 at 15:11
No, I misread your question and my answer made no sense. Hence the edit. – aix Oct 7 '10 at 15:12
I have tried "/". The error simply said, "Invalid path." – Jason Swett Oct 7 '10 at 15:53
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I think you need to create a module for "/" in rsyncd.conf (on the box which you're trying to back up.)

Something along these lines:

[root]
  path = /
  comment = "The root directory"

Get rsyncd to reload the config, and you should be able to use "root" as the path in the Frontview GUI.

See http://linux.die.net/man/5/rsyncd.conf, especially the examples towards the end of the file.

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Turns out putting "." works because it translates into "/." which is equivalent to "/".

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