cp weirdness on /dev

[Net Llama!]

On 11/27/03 08:31, Joel Hammer wrote:

> I am trying to transfer large number of files between linux machines  using
> samba and cp. 
> 
> The files I am trying to copy were created with cp -au originally on
> machine A, where they now reside. They consist of the entire directory
> and file structure of machine A minus a few things like /proc.
> 
> I am working from machine B, and mount the the machine A directory which holds
> these file.  I use cp -au to copy the files from A to B. Most files seem to
> go OK but:
> 
> When I hit the /dev directory on machine B, things get crazy.
> 
> Here is a sample of /dev on machine A:
> 
> drwxr-xr-x   6 root     root        12288 Sep  2 03:03 .
> drwxr-xr-x  20 root     root         2048 May  4  2003 ..
> crwxrwxrwx   1 root     games    107,   0 Feb 17  2000 3dfx
> crwxrwxrwx   1 root     root      30,   3 Jul  8  2000 XOR
> crwxrwxrwx   1 root     root      10, 175 Feb 17  2000 agpgart
> crwxrwxrwx   1 root     root      10, 134 Feb 17  2000 apm_bios
> brwxrwxrwx   1 root     disk      63,   0 Feb 17  2000 arcd
> crwxrwxrwx   1 root     root      30,  42 Jul  8  2000 arp
> crwxrwxrwx   1 root     root      10,   3 Feb 17  2000 atibm
> crw--w--w-   1 root     root      14,   4 Feb 17  2000 audio
> crwxrwxrwx   1 root     root      14,  20 Feb 17  2000 audio1
> brwxrwxrwx   1 root     disk      29,   0 Feb 17  2000 aztcd
> brwxrwxrwx   1 root     disk      29,   0 Feb 17  2000 aztcd0
> lrwxrwxrwx   1 root     root            5 May  4  2003 bmouseatixl -> atibm
> lrwxrwxrwx   1 root     root            6 May  4  2003 bmouselogitec ->
> logibm
> lrwxrwxrwx   1 root     root            8 May  4  2003 bmousems -> inportbm
> brwxrwxrwx   1 root     disk      41,   0 Feb 17  2000 bpcd
> brwxrwxrwx   1 root     disk      41,   0 Feb 17  2000 bpmcd
> lrwxrwxrwx   1 root     root            9 May  4  2003 cdrom -> /dev/scd0
> lrwxrwxrwx   1 root     root            6 May  4  2003 cdu31a -> sonycd
> brwxrwxrwx   1 root     disk      24,   0 Feb 17  2000 cdu535
> brwxrwxrwx   1 root     disk      30,   0 Feb 17  2000 cm205cd
> brwxrwxrwx   1 root     disk      32,   0 Feb 17  2000 cm206cd
> lrwxrwxrwx   1 root     root            4 May  4  2003 console -> tty0
> lrwxrwxrwx   1 root     root           11 May  4  2003 core -> /proc/kcore
> 
> Here is what shows up in machine B:
> 
> total 337595
> drwxr-xr-x    3 root     root          568 Nov 27 11:05 .
> drwxr-xr-x    5 root     root          184 Nov 27 10:45 ..
> -rwxr-xr-x    1 root     root            0 Feb 17  2000 3dfx
> -rwxr-xr-x    1 root     root            0 Feb 17  2000 agpgart
> -rwxr-xr-x    1 root     root            0 Feb 17  2000 apm_bios
> -rwxr-xr-x    1 root     root            0 Feb 17  2000 arcd
> -rwxr-xr-x    1 root     root            0 Feb 17  2000 atibm
> -rwxr-xr-x    1 root     root            0 Feb 17  2000 audio
> -rwxr-xr-x    1 root     root            0 Feb 17  2000 audio1
> -rwxr-xr-x    1 root     root            0 Feb 17  2000 aztcd
> -rwxr-xr-x    1 root     root            0 Feb 17  2000 aztcd0
> -rwxr-xr-x    1 root     root            0 Feb 17  2000 bmouseatixl
> -rwxr-xr-x    1 root     root            0 Feb 17  2000 bmouselogitec
> -rwxr-xr-x    1 root     root            0 Feb 17  2000 bmousems
> -rwxr-xr-x    1 root     root            0 Feb 17  2000 bpcd
> -rwxr-xr-x    1 root     root            0 Feb 17  2000 bpmcd
> -rwxr-xr-x    1 root     root            0 Feb 17  2000 cdu31a
> -rwxr-xr-x    1 root     root            0 Feb 17  2000 cdu535
> -rwxr-xr-x    1 root     root            0 Feb 17  2000 cm205cd
> -rwxr-xr-x    1 root     root            0 Feb 17  2000 cm206cd
> -rwxr-xr-x    1 root     root            0 Apr 26  2003 console
> -r-xr-xr-x    1 root     root     345694208 Nov 27 10:59 core
>  
> 
> Two bad things have happened. No device files have been copied over
> properly, and the symbolic link to core was followed, which is not
> supposed to happen with cp -au.
> 
> Any insight appreciated,

You're not using devfs on box a, are you?  If so, that would explain the 
weirdness, since my understanding is that everything under /dev is 
automagically generated, rather than a static file (like /proc).

-- 
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
L. Friedman                       	       netllama at linux-sxs.org
Linux Step-by-step & TyGeMo: 		    http://netllama.ipfox.com

   8:40am  up 3 days, 21:06,  2 users,  load average: 0.01, 0.04, 0.00