@ Forester

I think I understand what you intend to do here,
but I find the user interface most unfriendly.

I'd be glad to set some variables and make some
choices, but none I try seem to be correct.

I suggest perhaps you make it more clear which
lines need attention.

I've prepared my 2nd USB but I'll wait to see
how the discussion goes before just tweaking away.

A good example for cloop, not-encrypted and pruned
with /dev/sdb1 as master and dev/sdc1 as target
would be most helpful.