[Grml] /dev, udev and backup

[Michael Prokop]

* T o n g <mlist4suntong at yahoo.com> [20080711 17:46]:

> Do I need to backup the /dev directory when backing up my root fs?

> FYI, I thought udev would populate it on boot up so I didn't backup the /dev
> directory. However, I got 

>  Warning: unable to open initial console

> and the boot froze. 

> Going through all the possible reasons in http://kerneltrap.org/node/2205
> did I realize that my /dev directory should be backed up & populated.

Well, static devices can be found in /dev/.static/dev
and if configured/used also in /lib/udev/devices.

What's really important are the null, zero, console and tty[0-9]
devices which are all easy to generate/restore using MAKEDEV in case
you lose them.

So basically it's not necessary to backup /dev as long as you know
how to recover it ;) - but as /dev is usually less than 1MB size it
won't hurt to place it in your backups as well. ;)

hth && regards,
-mika-
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