I'm doing something wrong with excluding files.

I'm using star to run a very simple backup of a server here.  My goal is 
simply to run a tar of the whole file system to another volume.  In doing 
so, I'm excluding certain directories from the tar file, as they're either 
meaningless to back up (/proc, for instance) or handled via another 
mechanism (such as databases).

(As a note, I'm using star because GNU's tar was completely unable to 
handle multi-volume backups on another machine I'm responsible for.  
Well, it claims it backed up okay, but it wouldn't restore.  Since it left 
me high and dry once, I won't be using it for backups again.)

The server in question is Linux, running the ext3 file system.

The problem I'm seeing is that, while I specify files to exclude, the 
exclusions aren't working.  I'm probably doing something foolish wrong, 
and I can't see what it is.

When I try to fiddle with exclusions on the command line, they work 
properly.  It's only when I'm using it in the cron job that they don't 
seem to be right.

Here's the command line I'm giving:

/usr/bin/nice /usr/bin/star -c -.. -acl -atime -link-dirs -numeric
-p -xattr -xdir -multivol -H=exustar -fifo -fs=32m -fifostats -z \
f=/mnt/sda1/full.tar.gz new-volume-script=/bin/true \
-not pattern=/proc/* -not pattern=/tmp/* -not pattern=/media/* \
-not pattern=/mnt/* -not pattern=/var/tmp/* -not pattern=/var/run/* \
-not pattern=/var/spool/news/* -not pattern=/opt/interbase/data/* \
-not pattern=/dev/log /

I believe that the exclusions are not working because of many, many errors 
like this:

/usr/bin/star: Operation not supported. Cannot listxattr for '/proc'.
/usr/bin/star: Operation not supported. Cannot listxattr for 
'/proc/asound'.
/usr/bin/star: Operation not supported. Cannot listxattr for
'/proc/asound/AudioPCI'.
/usr/bin/star: Operation not supported. Cannot listxattr for
'/proc/asound/card0'.
/usr/bin/star: Operation not supported. Cannot listxattr for
'/proc/asound/card0/oss_mixer'.

I don't remember why I run this backup as -multivol.  I know that 
new-volume-script=/bin/true so that it does not complain about the lack of 
/dev/tty.  Considering there's only one file to be created (and always 
only will be one file) I probably don't need -multivol.  It should be 
harmless, shouldn't it?  I use a variant of this process on a machine with 
a tape drive, and it does use and need the -multivol.  (It also has a real 
script to change tapes.)  Could this be related to my problem?

Can anyone see what I've done wrong here so that the exceptions aren't 
working properly?  I've looked and looked and don't see it.

The same problem is actually breaking the backup of another machine, 
because the tape isn't quite big enough, and I'm unable to exclude 
portions to back up separately.

Any thoughts would be *greatly* appreciated.

-- 
Louis Erickson - [email protected] - http://www.rdwarf.com/~wwonko/

Furbling, v.:
	Having to wander through a maze of ropes at an airport or bank
even when you are the only person in line.
		-- Rich Hall, "Sniglets"