Path: utzoo!censor!geac!torsqnt!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rutgers!usc!samsung!uunet!hsi!stpstn!lerman
From: lerman@stpstn.UUCP (Ken Lerman)
Newsgroups: comp.unix.sysv386
Subject: Re: tar | compress
Message-ID: <5875@stpstn.UUCP>
Date: 2 Dec 90 13:55:43 GMT
References: <28498@usc>
Reply-To: lerman@stpstn.UUCP (Ken Lerman)
Organization: The Stepstone Corporation, Sandy Hook, CT 06482
Lines: 27

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?
->
->-- 
->  favourite oxymorons:  student athlete, honest politician, civil war
->Ken Hendrickson N8DGN/6       kjh@usc.edu      ...!uunet!usc!pollux!kjh

Of course, an alternative is to compress your files first and then
backup using tar.

I would not consider a compressed tar file to be a viable backup.

So far, everything fits on one tape on my machine.

Ken