Re: problems with tar for backup (maximum tar file size?)

Jimmy Wu wrote:
I haven't been backing up any of my stuff, and yesterday I decided to
start doing that
I want to use tar with bz2, and I wrote this little script to
hopefully automate this process (attached)
The script works, but tar doesn't. The logs show no errors until
somewhere near the end, when it says
tar: Error exit delayed from previous errors
but no other errors.

I've been searching online, and the only thing I can think of that's
wrong is the directory is too big. From what I read, the way tar
works, the tar archive can't be bigger than 8GB. My home directory is
about that much, maybe a little more. The largest file I have is a 2+
GB dvd iso.

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?

Thanks!

--
Jimmy Wu
Registered Linux User #454138
() ascii ribbon campaign - against html e-mail
/\ www.asciiribbon.org - against proprietary attachments

I use backup2l and it makes backups using tar and bz2. My initial backup is about 16G.

#ll /mnt/backup/backup/backup.1.tar.bz2
#-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 17991855331 2008-05-05 15:22 /mnt/backup/backup/backup.1.tar.bz2

Maybe a filesystem restriction in the same way vfat is restricted to 4G?

HTH

Wackojacko


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