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Newsgroups: comp.unix.bsd.freebsd.misc Path: euryale.cc.adfa.oz.au!newshost.anu.edu.au!harbinger.cc.monash.edu.au!nntp.coast.net!news.kei.com!newsfeed.internetmci.com!in2.uu.net!news.new-york.net!ritz.mordor.com!ritz From: ritz@ritz.mordor.com (Chris Mauritz) Subject: Re: dump on a DAT tape .. X-Newsreader: TIN [UNIX 1.3 950824BETA PL0] Lines: 56 Organization: Mordor International Message-ID: <Drn7Fy.IwH@ritz.mordor.com> References: <4mfon3$gib@news.simplex.nl> <4miicv$sb9@uriah.heep.sax.de> Date: Sun, 19 May 1996 07:57:34 GMT J Wunsch (j@uriah.heep.sax.de) wrote: : brian@awfulhak.demon.co.uk (Brian Somers) wrote: : : > : I prefer dump(8) for full backups. : : > IMO, tar is infinitely better. : : tar is inherently broken. It only allows for 100 (or 255 -- Posix : tar, but that's already another restriction) characters path name : length, many tar's don't allow for device nodes or FIFO's, tar has : problems extracting hardlinks if you wanna extract a subtree only, not : all tar's handle the permissions correctly. tar's that can handle : device nodes still break for 32-bit major/minor numbers as they are : found in 4.4BSD descendants. : : tar is certainly the least common denominator, but that doesn't make : it a good _backup_ program, only a good _data interchange_ program. : : (Don't tell me you won't be able to find another machine using UFS : around. :) : : cpio has fewer braindamages than tar, particularly SVR4 cpio. Older : cpio's are not much better however. : : dump/restore are only sharable among UFS architectures (and you will : even find byteorder stuff in restore, suggesting it's possible to : e.g. restore a SunOS 4 dump tape on FreeBSD!), but have the advantage : to be featured for a good backup program. They don't suffer from any : of the abovementioned braindeadnesses, and offer some other nice : features like a multilevel incremental backup system that is even : capable of deleting files that disappeared on the master between the : backup increments, a TOC that's right at the beginning of your 5-tape : backup, and the ability to interactively determine which files to : restore (in a simple command-line shell-like interface). I agree completely. I've only had one failure to restore files from DAT (in 4 years) and that was due to a failure in the media (or a failure in the drive to deal with marginal media). I backup about 12 gigs of "stuff" onto 2g 90m tapes every couple of days and it works very nicely. Hardware: Intel Plato mboard + 90mhz Pentium 256k cache Buslogic 946C controller 64mb RAMM lots of Barracudas WangDAT 3100 2g DAT drive I generally use TDK and Maxell tapes (US$6-8 each). The marginal tape was a SonyDG90MA "data cartridge". Regards, Chris -- Christopher Mauritz | For info on internet access: ritz@mordor.com | finger/mail info@ritz.mordor.com OR Mordor International | http://www.mordor.com/ 201/212/718 internet access | Modem: (201)433-7343,(212)843-3451