On Wednesday 29 May 2019 at 00:11:55, Joel Roth via Dng wrote:

> Hi,
>
> I've been backing up my root ext4 filesystem to ntfs for some time,

Depending on the purpose of your backup, this may be a poor choice of target
file system.

> gettings errors from rsync about failing to copy extended attributes.

Indeed. NTFS has no clue about such things, so although the *content* of the
backed-up files will be correct, the ownerships, permissions and extended
attributes will not.

> Will it affect the ability of my devuan OS or any major components to
> function if I lose extended attributes or ACLs?

I would say yes, although I've never dared to try backing up a Linux system to
NTFS and then trying to restore it again.

> One common use seems to be the immutable flag.

Yes, NTFS will have no clue about that.

I recommend that you back up to an extX (X=2, 3, 4) file system if your plan is
to be able to restore a working system from it.


I would also comment that *any* backup strategy should start with the
following three simple steps:

1. make a backup

2. restore that backup to new media (don't over-write the original system)

3. check that the restored system starts, and works as expected

Only after those three steps have shown that your backup mechanism actually
works should you implement a regular backup of the current system. Otherwise
you run a real risk of thinking you have a backup, when in fact you merely
have a copy of something which might help you to re-create the original
working system, but isn't something you can simply restore and re-start.


Regards,


Antony.

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