From: "E.L. Meijer \(Eric\)" <tgakem@sg10.chem.tue.nl>
To: debian <debian-user@lists.debian.org>
Subject: Re: Does anyone use ZIP disks to backup/restore their system?
How?
Date: Tue, 2 Nov 1999 13:29:38 +0100
On Tue, Nov 02, 1999 at 11:56:05AM +0100, Wouter Hanegraaff wrote:
> On Tue, Nov 02, 1999 at 02:11:09AM -0800, John Miskinis wrote:
> > Hi,
> >
> > I'm hoping to find a set of tools that will allow a linux system
> > to be backed up, and restored, using ZIP disks. I would really
> > appreciate any advise on this subject, from anyone who has
> > successfully restored a system from a multi-volume set.
>
> I've heard taper can work with zipdisks.
> However, if you have enough disk space you can just use tar and split to
> make a splitted (and gzip'd) tarfile in /tmp, and then just copy the
splits
> to your zipdisk.
[... description ...]
I wrote a little program that can do this without intermediate storage:
------------------------------------------------------------------------
MSPLIT(1) Dividing output over multiple volumes. MSPLIT(1)
NAME
msplit - a utility to divide output over multiple flop
pies, zip disks, etc
SYNOPSIS
<command> | msplit <mount dir> <output>
DESCRIPTION
This manual page describes version 0.2 of msplit.
Msplit reads data from the standard input (usually a
pipe), and writes it to files named <output>.num, where
num is an increasing number, in a directory on which a
removable medium can be mounted. Typical uses will be to
distribute data over multiple floppies or zip disks. You
should not mount anything before running the command.
Msplit will ask the user to insert the removable volume,
and try to mount it with the command `mount <mount dir>'.
Then it will open a file named <output>.0, and write until
there is no more input or the volume is full. If the lat
ter case applies, msplit will umount the directory, ask
for another volume (usually a disk), mount it, and start
writing <output>.1. This process continues until there is
no more input. Note that msplit does not erase any data
found on the disks, it only adds to them. This makes it
more flexible than using regular split(1). Another advan
tage above split is that no intermediary files are cre
ated.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
The current version also lists the contents of the mounted volume, and
offers the possibility to erase everything. Restoring without intermediate
files could also be done with a procedure like this (and this applies
also to archives made with regular split):
Open an xterm, and do
$ mkfifo tarfile
$ tar xvf tarfile
Open another xterm, and supposing you have used msplit and generated
files named backup.0 .. backup.2 on different zip disks, do something
like (this assumes you use bash)
$ exec 3>tarfile
insert first zip disk
$ mount /zip; cat /zip/backup.0 1>&3; umount /zip
insert second zip disk
$ mount /zip; cat /zip/backup.1 1>&3; umount /zip
insert third zip disk
$ mount /zip; cat /zip/backup.2 1>&3; umount /zip
$ exec 3>&1
Be sure to do this from the right directory. In between the cat
commands you can give any commands you like, but make sure to cat the
backup files to file descriptor 3 in the right order! If I get around
it, one day I will write `mcat' which automates this procedure and
complements msplit. Personally I use msplit mostly for floppies, so it
is in general not impossible to store the intermediate files.
If anyone is interested in `msplit' I can email it to them. If anyone
feels like putting it in a debian package I'll tack on a GPL licence and
you can go ahead. Of course there are no warranties ...
--
E.L. Meijer (tgakem@chem.tue.nl)
Eindhoven Univ. of Technology
Lab. for Catalysis and Inorg. Chem. (SKA)
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