Xref: utzoo comp.sys.ibm.pc:11471 comp.unix.questions:5471 comp.sys.att:2414
Path: utzoo!mnetor!uunet!husc6!hao!gatech!udel!princeton!rutgers!mtune!icus!lenny
From: lenny@icus.UUCP (Lenny Tropiano)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc,comp.unix.questions,comp.sys.att
Subject: Re: tar or cpio?
Message-ID: <249@icus.UUCP>
Date: 6 Feb 88 03:37:10 GMT
References: <246@mancol.UUCP> <556@gtx.com>
Reply-To: lenny@icus.UUCP (Lenny Tropiano)
Organization: ICUS Computer Group, Islip, NY
Lines: 36
Keywords: tar,cpio,archivers

In article <556@gtx.com> al@gtx.UUCP (Al Filipski 839-0732) writes:
|> [... reply to a question on the POSIX standards of cpio or tar ...]
|>
|>I too would like to know if such information is available.  I once did
|>a cpio backup onto multiple floppies (AT&T 3B1), and when I tried to
|>restore,  I had a hard read error on one of the floppies, early on in
|>the sequence.  Luckily, I had the information elsewhere.  Would there
|>have been any way to bypass the bad floppy and continue the restore?
|>Where can one get a document describing cpio format?
|>
|>

What you need to get is a program that was posted to the net a while
back, it was called "afio".  I think it was in comp.sources.unix 
(check with your local archive site).  It was a program that acted just
like cpio, but nicely skipped bad records and jumped to next ASCii header 
record (as long as you used the "-c" option to cpio or afio) and continued
with that file.   This means if you have a bad floppy, you might loose
one file if there is some bad data.  This also allows for starting at backup
disk #50 is you like (any disk) and skip to the first good header.

Nice program!  Very useful, especially if you backup on floppy.  The
program has an option to compile it with -DCTC3B2 (for 3B2 cartridge tape).


						-Lenny
-- 
============================ US MAIL:   Lenny Tropiano, ICUS Computer Group
 IIIII   CCC   U   U   SSSS             PO Box 1
   I    C   C  U   U  S                 Islip Terrace, New York  11752
   I    C      U   U   SSS   PHONE:     (516) 968-8576 [H] (516) 582-5525 [W] 
   I    C   C  U   U      S  AT&T MAIL: ...attmail!icus!lenny  TELEX: 154232428
 IIIII   CCC    UUU   SSSS   UUCP:
============================    ...{uunet!godfre, harvard!talcott}!\
                   ...{ihnp4, boulder, mtune, bc-cis, ptsfa, sbcs}! >icus!lenny 
"Usenet the final frontier"        ...{cmcl2!phri, hoptoad}!dasys1!/