Packet writing and backups (was: Re: program for backing up data)

[Rogério Brito <rbrito@ime.usp.br>]

On May 19 2003, Nirmal Govind wrote:
> Hi.. is there a free program for backing up specific folders on the
> hard disk onto a CD or external hard disk? I mean something that
> doesn't overwrite files that haven't changed etc. and only makes the
> necessary addition/deletion/replacement...

	This thread is quite appropriate, as I've currently looking
	for ways to automate more and more of my tasks.

	I'm also looking to *wisely* use tools to lower the effort
	sufficient to restore data in a crash-recovery situation
	and making my data cleaner/cross-platform as well as
	generating portable backups are both vital parts of my plan.

	I want to make backups of files that are not very much
	compressible (mpeg files, for instance) and that potentially
	span multiple CD-RWs.

	The closest to the ideal situation that I found was to use my
	CD-RW with packet writing tools. This way, I think that I can
	just use tar with its multivolume switch (-M) and backup the
	way I want.

	If, on the other hand, one wishes to use the CD-RW as a live
	filesystem for day-to-day work, I would think that rsync would
	do the trick.

	More information about packet writing can be found at
	<http://packet-cd.sourceforge.net/> and recent patches at
	<http://w1.894.telia.com/~u89404340/patches/packet/2.4/>. User
	space tools are already packaged for Debian in form of the
	udftools package.

	I am compiling my kernel (on i386) with packet writing support
	right now and I'll keep the list posted on the results I get.
	I'd appreciate if other people did the same.

> would be even better if there was something that creates a
> compressed image or something and

	With packet writing, one could use tools like gzip or bzip2...

> writes that to the CD if the total size of data to be backed up is
> greater than 650 or 700MB..

	Humm, this doesn't make sense to me (but I am not properly
	awake). Did you mean that you wanted to use multiple CDs for
	that purpose?

	I would love to know about other's experiences regarding
	packet writing and support for this feature.


	[]s, Roger...

-- 
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  Rogério Brito - rbrito@ime.usp.br - http://www.ime.usp.br/~rbrito
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