Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!uunet!mtndew!friedl
From: friedl@mtndew.Tustin.CA.US (Stephen J. Friedl)
Newsgroups: comp.unix.sysv386
Subject: Re: tar | compress
Message-ID: <585@mtndew.Tustin.CA.US>
Date: 2 Dec 90 20:32:22 GMT
References: <28498@usc>
Organization: VSI*FAX Tech Ctr, Tustin, CA
Lines: 22

In article <28498@usc>, kjh@pollux.usc.edu (Kenneth J. Hendrickson) writes:
> 
> 	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.
> 
> So what do people do?  Do you trust your disks/tapes and use compress?

Some types of data lend themselves to a compress backup better
than others.  Several of my customers, for instance, do backups
of databases (a few very large files) where the entire backup
must be readable for any part of it to be useful (lots of related
files).  If you have an error in any file, the entire backup is
bad whether compression is used or not.

    Steve

-- 
Stephen J. Friedl, KA8CMY  /  3B2-kind-of-guy  /  Tustin, CA / 3B2-kind-of-guy
+1 714 544 6561  / friedl@mtndew.Tustin.CA.US  / {uunet,attmail}!mtndew!friedl

"If it doesn't core dump, ship it" - Gary W. Keefe, on product development