[p4] unix copying a depot

[Robert Cowham]

> Basically, when you copy your depot with "cp -r my_depot 
> my_depot_copy" I guess that you my_depot has many db.* files in it.
> When you copy these files like this, from a running server -- 
> there is a great chance that these files will get corrupt or 
> incomplete at best.
> That's why it's much more safe to use backup and restore 
> procedures, for example restoring from checkpoint.
> And you won't get corrupt data in the my_depot_copy server.

I agree :) With caveats - if nothing is happening then copying db.* is OK,
but its much more of a risk than doing a checkpoint and copying that and
restoring from it.

It also allows some "checkpoint surgery" as suggested in my original email.

This isn't difficult - read the sysadmin guide chapter on backup/restore.

http://www.perforce.com/perforce/doc.073/manuals/p4sag/02_backup.html#104333
6

Hopefully my original suggestions will make more sense after reading that.

Robert