Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!sun-barr!newstop!sun!amdcad!dgcad!dg-rtp!wgate!lanzo From: lanzo@wgate.UUCP (Mark Lanzo) Newsgroups: comp.sys.hp Subject: Re: Do NOT use ftio or cpio for backups Message-ID: <192@atesysv.UUCP> Date: 12 Jun 91 13:12:01 GMT References: <28510054@hpuamsa.neth.hp.com> Reply-To: lanzo@atesysv.UUCP (Mark Lanzo) Organization: Wandel & Goltermann Technologies, Inc. Lines: 36 In a prior article franks@hpuamsa.neth.hp.com (Frank Slootweg CRC) wrote: > Just some quick notes : > > problem #2: multiply linked files with inodes >64k > > For cpio : This was fixed with some clever algorithms in 6.5 (300) and > 7.0 (800). The tape format is still compatible. How is this done? I did "man 4 cpio". It clearly shows that the header structure stores the inode as a "ushort" value. No other field in the header structure seems to represent the upper word of the inode value. Therefore either (1) the inode number must still be only 16 bits; or (2) the header has been changed & the man pages are now incorrect. If (1) is true, then the only choices I can see are that: (a) inodes are mod 64K, just like the original article suggested (with the attendant problems of bogus links being made), or (b) there's some magic value used for the inode which never gets overlaid and link information is discarded after a certain point. Choice (b) is at least a little better than (a) in that it means that you can at least restore the files without corrupting something else, but it implies that links won't be made in those cases where they *should* be, so you'll end up with duplicate copies of things. Neither of these qualifies as an acceptable solution. Is there some other option which I've overlooked? I for one am not going to rest comfortably until I get some positive info from HP sounding the "all's clear" signal! Are there any other PD/Freeware type backup utilities out there that I should consider (perhaps the GNU folks have something?) ? -- Mark -- P.S.: The cpio/ftio/etc stuff has been reported to the HP response center (probably multiple times!). One ref number is A1784569.