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From: greg@tcnz2.tcnz.co.nz (Greg Calkin)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ncr
Subject: Re: Whats wrong with cpio -oTV /dev/rtp
Message-ID: <470@tcnz2.tcnz.co.nz>
Date: 13 Nov 90 05:16:21 GMT
References: <1124@cnw01.storesys.coles.oz.au>
Reply-To: greg@tcnz.co.nz (Greg Calkin)
Organization: Thomas Cook NZ Head Office, Auckland, NZ
Lines: 37

In article nigel@cnw01.storesys.coles.oz.au (Nigel Harwood) writes:
>Looking through the NCR SA scripts (Tower 32 UNIX V2 1 & 2) for tape
>backup/restore of files I found that they handle multiple volumes
>by building a list of the first set of files which will fit on the
>first tape and then the next etc.
>
>Whats wrong with using cpio -oTV /dev/rtp ?

There is nothing wrong with the early version of it, but versions
from 2.0 (or so - not 100% sure which version) on tower32's didn't
work with multiple volume. When we upgrade, we automatically install
the old version of cpio on our machine.

>For instance I was considering the following command to
>backup the contents of a directory which I hope to squeeze onto
>one tape but may well take two.
>
>find . -print | cpio -o | compress | cpio -oTV /dev/rtp

Buy a 150Meg tape drive :-) There are other backup systems people
have mentioned like afio. dd and a bit of sneakyness could work,
possibly through a named pipe ?

Also, we have a little utility called cpiofilt that filters out
multiple copies of linked files and creates a script linkcomms
which is backuped last. This script contains the required link
commands to rebuild all file linkages. There is even a sln version
of this. This saves multiple copies of the file on backup. If you 
have linked files, this is VERY handy. Backups are run thus

find . -print | cpiofilt | cpio -ovc | compress | dd of=/dev/rtp obs=100k

Have fun
-- 
Greg Calkin, Systems Engineer and Dreamer                    (greg@tcnz.co.nz)
Thomas Cook N.Z. Limited, PO Box 24, Auckland CPO, New Zealand, Ph (09)-793920
Disclaimer : Would you buy a used car from someone with these opinions ?