[NTLUG:Discuss] backing up in linux....

[Eric Waguespack]

the problem with this is, a)  i want to be able to easily see what is
on volume # $RANDOM, and I do not want to have a situation where if I
lose volume 1 I am s.o.l.

On 9/15/06, Robert Pearson <e2eiod at gmail.com> wrote:
> On 9/15/06, Chris Cox <cjcox at acm.org> wrote:
> > Eric Waguespack wrote:
> > > thanks for all of the advise... but nothing suggested is really what I
> > > was looking for.
> > >
> > > maybe I'll submit an enhancement request:
> > >
> > > man cp
> > > ..
> > > --pause-and-ask-user-for-another-destination-if-target-device-is-full
> > > ..
> >
> > GNU tar will do this... take a look at the man page.
> >
> > You can call a script when you reach end of medium and do
> > whatever you want.
>
>
> This is not a trivial problem.
> What you may be looking for is "multi-volume" capability.
> The key phrase is "multi-volume".
> Anything that wrote to tape in a serious fashion, backups are serious,
> will do multi-volume to most media. You would need to check with the
> product vendor to see if it has been tested with USB thumb drives.
>
> The challenge here is not in the software but whether the USB thumb
> drives report, or signal, being "full" in a way that the multi-volume
> software can get the signal. The early 8 mm cartridge tapes did not
> have an EOT (end of tape) sensor, so no EOT signal came from the
> drive. You had to calculate bytes written and tape used.
>
> Floppies had the same problem. How does the floppy tell you it is full?
> I can remember sitting there with a handful of floppies wanting for the
> screen to tell me to insert the next one.
> I think I was using the Norton System software.
>
> GNU tar options from "info tar":
>
> `--multi-volume'
> `-M'
>      Informs `tar' that it should create or otherwise operate on a
>      multi-volume `tar' archive.
>
> `--new-volume-script'
>      (see -info-script)
>
> `--info-script=SCRIPT-FILE'
> `--new-volume-script=SCRIPT-FILE'
> `-F SCRIPT-FILE'
>      When `tar' is performing multi-tape backups, SCRIPT-FILE is run at
>      the end of each tape.  If SCRIPT-FILE exits with nonzero status,
>      `tar' fails immediately.
>
> _______________________________________________
> http://www.ntlug.org/mailman/listinfo/discuss
>