[Savannah-register-public] [task #9745] Submission of Block Device Imaging Tools

[Jacob Bachmeyer]

URL:
  <http://savannah.nongnu.org/task/?9745>

                 Summary: Submission of Block Device Imaging Tools
                 Project: Savannah Administration
            Submitted by: jcb
            Submitted on: Mon 28 Sep 2009 02:29:14 AM GMT
         Should Start On: Mon 28 Sep 2009 12:00:00 AM GMT
   Should be Finished on: Thu 08 Oct 2009 12:00:00 AM GMT
                Category: Project Approval
                Priority: 5 - Normal
                  Status: None
                 Privacy: Public
        Percent Complete: 0%
             Assigned to: None
             Open/Closed: Open
         Discussion Lock: Any
                  Effort: 0.00

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Details:

A new project has been registered at Savannah 
This project account will remain inactive until a site admin approves or
discards the registration.


= Registration Administration =

While this item will be useful to track the registration process, *approving
or discarding the registration must be done using the specific Group
Administration
<https://savannah.nongnu.org/siteadmin/groupedit.php?group_id=10353> page*,
accessible only to site administrators, effectively *logged as site
administrators* (superuser):

* Group Administration
<https://savannah.nongnu.org/siteadmin/groupedit.php?group_id=10353>


= Registration Details =

* Name: *Block Device Imaging Tools*
* System Name:  *blkclone*
* Type: non-GNU software & documentation
* License: GNU General Public License v2 or later (may change to GPL v3 or
later in future; not sure yet)

----

==== Description: ====
The blkclone tools are a free software solution for efficient disk imaging
written in C.

These tools clone filesystems by generating a list of disk extents that store
data and copying only those blocks.

This enables cloning filesystems that are only partially understood provided
that some way is known to determine which blocks are actually in use.

Planned future enhancements include a network-based special-purpose Linux
micro-distro for deploying images using a network and support for file-level
imaging using cpio or similar.


==== Other Software Required: ====
No dependencies beyond base system.
(Needs libc and Linux kernel (uses/will use /proc/sys/kernel/random/uuid),
future planned directions involve use specifically of Linux kernel
(kernel.org) (GPLv2) (stuffing binaries in an initramfs to make a
self-contained bootable image) and BusyBox (busybox.net) (GPLv2).)


==== Other Comments: ====
Admittedly, the current state of the codebase ("in-development, as I have
time for it") lends itself mostly to supporting the use (and working around
the problems) of certain common non-free operating systems.  (Got a virus in
the lab, AGAIN? Nuke and reload from the (GNU/Linux) server.)  Support for
deploying images of GNU systems is planned more at the file level with cpio or
equivalent, since GNU systems do not rely on particular files being at
hard-wired places on the disk and have full support for their filesystems in
free software, so the "copy disk structures without knowing what they mean"
approach is not required.

With a view towards advancing Free Software, I see blkclone as a Free
alternative to any of the several proprietary packages that do more-or-less
the same thing as is planned, although at this stage it is more a collection
of yet-to-be-polished tools than a "ready-to-roll" system.


==== Tarball URL: ====
http://savannah.gnu.org/submissions_uploads/blkclone-snapshot.tar.gz






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