Xref: utzoo comp.unix.questions:22518 comp.unix.wizards:22209
Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!mailrus!sharkey!msuinfo!frith!jhl
From: jhl@frith.uucp (John Lawitzke)
Newsgroups: comp.unix.questions,comp.unix.wizards
Subject: Re: Copying /dev/* to another partition
Message-ID: <1990May30.200936.2057@msuinfo.cl.msu.edu>
Date: 30 May 90 20:09:36 GMT
References: <109757@linus.UUCP>
Sender: news@msuinfo.cl.msu.edu
Organization: Michigan State University
Lines: 16

From article <109757@linus.UUCP>, by rtidd@mwunix.mitre.org (Randall Tidd):
$ I am running SunOS 4.1 on a Sun 3/160.
$ 
$ I am trying to clone my root partition to a backup partition (just
$ root and subdirectories, but *not* other partitions such as /usr,
$ /home, etc).  I ran into a problem when trying to copy /dev; when I
$ try to cp /dev/sd0a (for example), it will try to read from the device
$ /dev/sd0a rather than copy the actual file /dev/sd0a.

Sounds like a job for cpio. Check out its man page.

--
j                               |%|John Lawitzke, Dale Computer Corp., R&D
                                |%|UUCP: uunet!mailrus!sharkey!dale1!jhl
				|%|  or: uunet!frith!dale1!jhl
Inquiring minds just wondering. |%|Internet: jhl@frith.egr.msu.edu