Ways of referring to root other than "/"

Question

Is there any other way to refer to the root directory besides "/"?

I have a ReadyNAS Pro on which I'm trying to set up a backup. When it asks me what directory I want to back up, it wants me to leave off the leading slash. For example, it wants me to enter "home/jason" if I want to back up "/home/jason". This is problematic when I want to back up "/" because it won't accept "" as a path.

I've tried creating a symlink for "/" but that didn't work.

Is there any other way to refer to the root directory? Any other thoughts on how to solve the problem?

score 1 · Accepted Answer · answered Oct 08 '10 at 15:22

1

Try /. or /./ if it insists on it ending with a trailing slash.

Edit: Note that I'm not sure how RedyNAS does its backups -- If it's going to create a directory and copy files into it you may wind up with a horrible circular mess and a full disk... Test this on non-valuable data first :-)

answered Oct 08 '10 at 15:22

voretaq7

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The issue is not that it wants a trailing slash, but that it _doesn't_ want a _leading_ slash. – Jason Swett Oct 08 '10 at 16:57
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If it assumes a leading slash (the path you provide is interpreted as /`path`) then `.` is (or at least should be) the root – voretaq7 Oct 08 '10 at 17:04
Using simply "." seems to have worked. Thanks. – Jason Swett Oct 08 '10 at 17:16

Ways of referring to root other than "/"

1 Answers1