Baslinux mailing list

[sindi keesan <keesan AT sdf.lonestar.org>]

On Thu, 2 Dec 2004 3aoo-cvfd AT dea.spamcon.org wrote:

> sindi keesan wrote:
> > Is there some way to tar all but selected directories
> > of a partition?
>
> Yes, use the --exclude or -X parameters.  Or simply
> specify the directories you want in the tar.
>
> > --exclude-from=FILE,
>
> That's the same as -X
>
> > where FILE is a list of globbing patterns, whatever that is.
> > I made a file with the  names of the directories to exclude,
> > which did not work.
>
> It works for me.

I typed:
tar -cvf temp.tar * --exclude-from=FILE

Into FILE I put the following:
/windows
/progr~1
/mymusi~1
/putty

I also tried this with -X=FILE, or -X FILE, and without the /
I thought linux treated directories the same as files.

The first thing tar would do is start to compress the /windows and 
/program files - or at least I think that is what was happening.  It
showed a long list of them onscreen.  Maybe it was listing the files it 
did NOT include first?

What is a globbing pattern?  Does this mean I could use wildcards as well 
as file names, such as putting into FILE   win* and *~* ?

I finally used llpro (140MB in about an hour instead of 1 minute with 
ethernet).

> > The busybox tar has far fewer switches but has proved useful
> > other times.
>
> That's what I'm using.  Both -X and --exclude work as expected.
> BTW --exclude does only one file (although you can have more
> than one --exclude).

I figured that part out, but it also said something about globbing.  It 
got too late to look up what globbing meant so we started llpro.

I also tried running tar with --exclude=windows and --exclude windows and 
-X windows etc. (not all at once) followed by (on the same line) 
--exclude=progra~1 etc.  Maybe it was working but I did not recognize 
that?  I don't think I have room on my drive for a tar file that includes 
the windows junk (it would make it three times as large, and the tar file 
appears to take more space than the original files) so I kept stopping it 
and deleting the partial tar.temp.

The busybox tar may do the same things but the --help file did not mention 
anything about X so I switched to BL3 loop from BL2 RAMdisk.

> > I am stuck with DOS 7.10 for this computer unless someone
> > can explain how to set up lilo to choose between DOS, BL3
> > and BL2, with DOS as default.

> I am reluctant to offer advice about lilo because I am not
> an expert on lilo (I prefer using loadlin).  I'm sure a
> dozen people on linux-newbie would give much better lilo
> advice than I can.  However, I previously did venture a
> suggestion for booting DOS and Linux with lilo.  Did you
> try that?  Did it work?

I assumed that you did not have the answer to this one, which was also not 
in my book.  I will try lilo on a new DOS/BL3 installation shortly.

First we need to get three desktops off the 'eating' table (one of which 
may be due for a recycle or at least a retirement to DOS/Windows only) and 
figure out whether we can put linux on one of two good 486s with bad 
floppy drives (we have recycled a few others and generated some spare 
floppy drives to try in them).  We need to choose a laptop onto which to 
put linux with lilo, rather than risk messing up my work computers again 
experimenting.  (They seem to work now, after replacing two drives, one 
fan, one motherboard, two linux partitions and one DOS partition, and the 
OS several times).

I will also try your netcat method of transferring/installing packages to 
a laptop (via serial cable - simpler than plip if a bit slower).

Can I use lilo to boot to DOS or Bl3, and when in DOS use loadlin to boot 
to another linux?

Would SBM allow one to choose between DOS and various linuxes?

MS-DOS 7.10 seems to work if you put it onto a freshly formatted partition 
(format /s) (rather than on a partition that was running DR-DOS first) but 
it was not a straightforward installation (the parts - sys command and sys 
files - came from two versions).  We are still redoing autoexec.bat and 
config.sys to point to the new utilities.  My partner has selected the 
latest version of everything from MS-DOS 7.10 and Win98 DOS (and defrag 
from FREEDOS) and we have a mishmash.  I already  managed to crash with 
mem /c /p (worked with DR-DOS mem).

Linux now boots from it on my problem computer, every time.  QED.
Hal claims to have fixed his two machines with the 'not an image file' 
problem using rdev, which did not work for me.