Re: problems with tar for backup (maximum tar file size?)
On Tue, Aug 26, 2008 at 12:20, Mike McCarty <Mike.McCarty@sbcglobal.net> wrote:
> Jimmy Wu wrote:
>
> [...]
>
>> So I was wondering: (1) Is it true that tar files can't be bigger than
>> 8GB, and (2) If so, what should I use to backup directories bigger
>> than 8GB? I wanted to stick with tar because I can open those on
>> other platforms. If directory size isn't the problem, then what could
>> be going on?
>
> I use tar to do backups, and have generated tarballs which span 26
> DVDs (roughly 118 Gig). The problem is likely not tar, but the file
> system. Tar does not have a central directory, it has a distributed
> directory. Each file in the archive has a little header which describes
> it. Another thing to watch for, if you are putting files onto DVDs,
> as opposed to writing them raw, is that the largest single file which
> the ISO file system (not UDF) for DVDs can support is just under
> 2 Gig. So you can't write a single huge 4.x Gig file to a DVD using
> that file system. Here's a little piece of the script I use for
> creating chunks which fit, four to a DVD.
Thanks for that - I've been using rsync and an external HD to do
incremental backups, but I'll save your message for future reference.
Jimmy
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