On 06/12/2020 21:42, Martin Gregorie wrote:
> In fact, it seems that the boot partition is mounted on /boot as part of
> the boot process, so on thinking about it, the only effect of it having
> content *should* be that the files in it occupy space in the filesystem
> partition but are inacessable while Raspbian is running. Consequently
> they would be better removed so that other, more useful files can occupy
> that space.

You shouldn't be backing up files under /boot, the boot partition needs
to be backed up separately.

> Note that, if the entire filesystem is backed up using tar, rsync or zip
> pointed at '/' while Raspbian is running from that SD card, then the
> backed up archive *will* correctly show that /boot contains the entire
> content of the boot partition. IOW, cleaning out /boot after restoring an
> offline SD card from the archive will at worst do no harm and at best
> will release some tens of MB of filespace.

Most backup software will not cross filing system boundaries, so you
don't backup several TB of mounted NAS drives rather than just your SD
card. If rolling your own backups, make sure you specify option not to
follow mounts or links to other filing systems.

> I've always assumed that is why you said that /boot should be emptied
> when moving the two partitions to a bigger card. Doing so makes sense, is
> fast and easy to do, so why not do it?

If you've backed up with the correct options /boot on the root filing
system will be empty, along with all the other places that should not be
backed up (/dev /proc /media /mnt /tmp /run ecetera)

--druck

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