Re: tar question

[Ralph Alvy <ralvy@warpmail.net>]

Ashish Ariga wrote:

> On Tue, Oct 21, 2003 at 03:47:29PM -0700, Ralph Alvy wrote:
>> A newbie question. I'm trying to bakup the current directory to my MO
>> device. That device is registered in the system as
>> 
>>         /dev/sda
>> 
>> and is mounted on
>> 
>>         /mnt/mo
>> 
>> Neither of the following attempts success in creating a backup.tar.gz
>> file on my MO drive:
>> 
>>         tar cvzf /dev/sda backup.tar.gz .
> 
> I am not sure if you can specify a filename unless you have a filesystem
> on it. I have been successful by specifying just the device. Say,
> tar cvf /dev/sda .
> 
>>         tar cvzf /mnt/mo/backup.tar.gz .
 
> Ashish.

I *have* a file system on it. I ended up running 

        tar cvzf backup.tar.gz ~

while logged onto the MO drive itself, resulting in a full backup of my home
directory on that drive. I wonder why I can't do it from the home directory
itself.