Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!uunet!bfmny0!tneff
From: tneff@bfmny0.BFM.COM (Tom Neff)
Newsgroups: comp.unix.sysv386
Subject: Re: tar | compress
Message-ID: <16082@bfmny0.BFM.COM>
Date: 30 Nov 90 01:18:54 GMT
References: <28498@usc>
Reply-To: tneff@bfmny0.BFM.COM (Tom Neff)
Lines: 13

In article <28498@usc> kjh@pollux.usc.edu (Kenneth J. Hendrickson) writes:
>If you do a backup with tar, and pipe the output through compress before
>writing it on the disk or tape, and ...  If there is a single bit error
>on the tape, then you could loose all the files in your backup from that
>point until the end.  If you don't use compress, and there is a single
>bit error, you won't have that problem, but you will require many more
>disks or tapes.  So what do people do?  Do you trust your disks/tapes
>and use compress?

I use compress but do a verify read of the tape after the run.  (What
else has my system got to do at 3am.)  If the verify fails, I hear about
it next morning.  That's enough warning to retire the old tape and
re-run.  For me, compress is definitely worth it.