# Can you have the Linux root directory as the snapshot \? **URL:** \ **Category:** Support\ **Created:** [November 13, 2025, 8:43pm UTC](https://kopia.discourse.group/t/can-you-have-the-linux-root-directory-as-the-snapshot-source/8684 "2025-11-13T20:43:33Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 4\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Bruce](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ccd318/32.png) [@Bruce](https://kopia.discourse.group/u/Bruce)\ **Post date:** [November 13, 2025, 8:43pm UTC](https://kopia.discourse.group/t/can-you-have-the-linux-root-directory-as-the-snapshot-source/8684/1 "2025-11-13T20:43:33Z")
I am trying to back up a Linux box where the snapshot source is the Linux OS root directory. When I try to get an estimate, this is what occurs: sudo kopia snapshot estimate ‘/’ Analyzing … Snapshot includes 0 file(s), total size 0 B Snapshot excludes no files. Snapshot excludes 1 directories. Examples: - . Estimated upload time: 0s at 10 Mbit/s Does Kopia support such a snapshot, or am I missing something with the source directory syntax? Thanks! ---
**Author:** ![budy](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/free1/user_avatar/kopia.discourse.group/budy/32/38_2.png) [@budy](https://kopia.discourse.group/u/budy)\ **Post date:** [November 14, 2025, 5:23am UTC](https://kopia.discourse.group/t/can-you-have-the-linux-root-directory-as-the-snapshot-source/8684/2 "2025-11-14T05:23:17Z")
You will have to exclude some dirs to make that work: ```auto dev/ **,tmp/** ,proc/** ``` those dirs are transient and cannot be part of a snapshot. Especially dev and proc, since the contain virtual files, which are no regular files. ---
**Author:** ![IcePic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/74df32/32.png) [@IcePic](https://kopia.discourse.group/u/IcePic)\ **Post date:** [November 14, 2025, 12:22pm UTC](https://kopia.discourse.group/t/can-you-have-the-linux-root-directory-as-the-snapshot-source/8684/3 "2025-11-14T12:22:47Z")
> [@budy](#): > > Especially dev and proc, since the contain virtual files, which are no regular files. and /sys too. (20 chars) ---
**Author:** ![Bruce](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ccd318/32.png) [@Bruce](https://kopia.discourse.group/u/Bruce)\ **Post date:** [November 14, 2025, 2:04pm UTC](https://kopia.discourse.group/t/can-you-have-the-linux-root-directory-as-the-snapshot-source/8684/4 "2025-11-14T14:04:04Z")
Hello Budy - thank you for the prompt reply! I’m wondering if the issue is related to my .kopiaignore syntax. This is the .kopiaignore file’s contents - file permission is currently set to 777 for debug purposes. boot/\*\* dev/\*\* home/shared\_data/\*\* lib/\*\* lib64/\*\* lost+found/\*\* media/\*\* mnt/\*\* opt/\*\* proc/\*\* snap/\*\* swapfile/\*\* sys/\*\* tmp/\*\* usr/\*\* var/run/\*\* var/tmp/\*\* When I run these commands, kopia does not seem to pick up any files or directories (it should pick up some /home and /var directories. Am I misunderstanding something about the syntax for directory and file excludes? Thanks in advance for any insight you can provide! $ sudo kopia snapshot estimate / Analyzing … Snapshot includes 0 file(s), total size 0 B Snapshot excludes no files. Snapshot excludes 1 directories. Examples: - . Estimated upload time: 0s at 10 Mbit/s $ sudo kopia snapshot create / Snapshotting root@lingual:/ … 0 hashing, 0 hashed (0 B), 0 cached (0 B), uploaded 201 B, estimating… Created snapshot with root kbc74d3f46e30993fef85405f7398a458 and ID 601e2c97381e112be12d87376255e217 in 0s