#mkstage4

This is a bash script to create stage 4 tarballs either for the running system, or a system at a specified mount point.
The script is a new edition of an earlier [mkstage4 script](https://github.com/gregf/bin/blob/master/mkstage4) by Greg Fitzgerald (unmaintained as of 2012) which is itself a revamped edition of the [original mkstage4](http://blinkeye.ch/dokuwiki/doku.php/projects/mkstage4) by Reto Glauser (unmaintaied as of 2009). 
 
More information on mkstage4 can be found on its own Chymeric Tutorials article: [mkstage4 - Stage 4 Tarballs Made Easy](http://tutorials.chymera.eu/blog/2014/05/18/mkstage4-stage4-tarballs-made-easy/). 

##Installation

####On [Gentoo Linux](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gentoo_linux) and [Derivatives](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Gentoo_Linux_derivatives):

Mkstage4 is available in the [Portage](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Portage_(software)) *[chymerc overlay](https://github.com/TheChymera/chymeric)* as **[app-backup/mkstage4](https://github.com/TheChymera/chymeric/tree/master/app-backup/mkstage4)**.
Just run the following command:

```
emerge app-backup/mkstage4
```

*If you are not yet using this overlay, it can be enabled with just two commands, as seen in [the README](https://github.com/TheChymera/chymeric).*

####On all other Operating Systems:

For all other Linux distributions or operating systems, the script can also be run directly from the containing folder:

```bash
git clone https://github.com/TheChymera/mkstage4.git /your/mkstage4/directory
cd /your/mkstage4/directory
chmod +x mkstage4.sh
```

*Please bear in mind that this will not pull in RawTherapee, make sure you have already installed it.*

##Usage

Archive your current system (mounted at /):

```bash
./mkstage4.sh -s archive_name
```

Archive system located at a custom mount point:

```bash
./mkstage4.sh -t /custom/mount/point archive_name
```

Other options:

* `-q`: (quiet) runs without prompting for confirmation (careful!).
* `-b`: (no-boot) excludes the `/boot` (or `/cutom/mount/point/boot`) directory.
* `-c`: (no-connman) excludes connman saved networks directory.

##Extract Tarball

Tarballs created with mkstage4 can be extracted with:

```bash
tar xvjpf archive_name.tar.bz2
```

##Dependencies:

* **[Bash](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bash_(Unix_shell))** - in [Portage](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Portage_(software)) as **app-shells/bash**
* **[tar](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tar_(computing))** - in Portage as **app-arch/tar**

Please note that these are very basic dependencies and should already be included in any Linux system.

##Meta
Released under the GPLv3 license.
Project led by Horea Christian (address all correspondence to: h.chr@mail.ru).