Re: Archiving content of a directory on a DVD-R.

["Thomas Schmitt" <scdbackup@gmx.net>]

Hi,

Lee <ler762@gmail.com> wrote:
> > any chance there's a symlink in the directory? that you want archived?
> > tar -h
> >   Follow symlinks; archive and dump the files they point to.

peter@easthope.ca wrote:
> I can't think of a reason for a symlink to 
> exist but will keep the possibility in mind.  An exception is a likely 
> source of trouble.

Actually i think that symbolic links should be backuped as what they are.

Backing up link targets instead will prevent recreating of the link
relation at restore time. If the link target or link siblings are also part
of the backup, then they will be backuped and restored as duplicates.

Said this, if you use xorriso for making an ISO 9660 you can control this
by command -follow. Default is

  -follow pattern:mount:limit=100

which will follow links during resolving of search patterns (as would the
shell do), will follow a sub tree into a different mounted filesystem,
and limit link chain length to 100 in order to avoid link loops.

If you want to follow symbolic links inside tress, perform before the
first -map command:

  -follow link:mount:limit=100

If you do not want this but only want to record the link targets of
program arguments, like $SYMBOLIC_LINK_PATH in

  -map $SYMBOLIC_LINK_PATH $ISO_PATH

then perform

  -follow param:mount:limit=100


Have a nice day :)

Thomas