*BSD News Article 4613


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Path: sserve!manuel!munnari.oz.au!spool.mu.edu!darwin.sura.net!sgiblab!svcs1!slix
From: slix@svcs1.UUCP (Bill Miller)
Newsgroups: comp.unix.bsd
Subject: Re: backup w/ compression for UN*X?
Summary: yes, but will it span disks?
Message-ID: <707@svcs1.UUCP>
Date: 7 Sep 92 01:33:52 GMT
References: <1992Sep3.015437.15379@msuinfo.cl.msu.edu> <colin.715495706@marsh>
Organization: Silicon Valley Computer Society, Sunnyvale, CA
Lines: 19

In article <colin.715495706@marsh>, colin@marsh.cs.curtin.edu.au (Colin Manning) writes:
> You could use tar -cf - <directory> | compress | tar -cf -
> 
> (I think the second one should work, but if you have GNU tar use that.)
> 
> >I realize that this isn't the standard UN*X way to do backups,
> >but a compressing dump program would be really useful to students.
> 

Yes, I tried this, plus some of the other suggestions, but I don't see
how it will span disks.  Tar by itself would be more convenient than
cpio, I suppose, but it would be nice to stick in a prompt or something
to change disks when the first disk fills up.  Tar just seems to keep
going.

Or, do you simply switch disks as soon as the little red light on the
drive has gone out for a while? :)