Path: utzoo!attcan!utgpu!watmath!clyde!att!osu-cis!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!rutgers!mailrus!ames!haven!adm!xadmx!nvt9001@BELVOIR-EMH3.ARMY.MIL
From: nvt9001@BELVOIR-EMH3.ARMY.MIL (DoN Nichols)
Newsgroups: comp.unix.wizards
Subject: GNU-tar vs dump(1)
Message-ID: <17999@adm.BRL.MIL>
Date: 2 Jan 89 16:03:37 GMT
Sender: news@adm.BRL.MIL
Lines: 41


	Can anyone out there in wizard-land tell me any reason why I
should continue to use dump(1) for system backups given the capabilities
in the latest release of tar(1) from GNU?
	The GNU tar allows muli-volume archives, incremental backups,
restores to full permissions (ignoring umask), limiting an archive to a
single filesystem, it can be told to ignore a set of named files (with
wildcards) allowing dropping of 'core' files & backups left by editors
such as '#*' and '*~'.
	It also can use the maximum blocking factor that my drive will
handle (b40 - 20KB) and my dump(1) is fixed at b10 (5KB).  This is a
wear consideration on my drive (a Cipher F880), which as a streaming
drive, has to do a lot of extra motor work to emulate a start-stop
drive.  The tar even seems fast enough so that the drive seldom has to
do the start-stop emulation, while dump(1) does a lot of it.
	Another consideration is that I cannot persuade dump(1) to
restore the root file system when I boot from a floppy. (It complains of
'out of swap space').  The tar is perfectly happy to do a restore onto
the root file system when booted from a floppy.
	Don't tell me to go to the vendor and complain.  This is a
personal system obtained from a hamfest + a lot of detective work to
restore it to complete status.  The manufacturer seems to be
non-existant (CMS Industries - computer is a CMS-16/UNX).  The people
who did the port of UNIX to the system (a version 7 with some Berlkey
enhancements), when contacted said "We don't even have any backup tapes
that old!". (This was ported in 1982).
	Replies to nvt9001@belvoir-emh3.army.mil (or
nvt9001@belvoir-mail1.arpa) and I will summarize to the net if others
are interested.
					Thanks in Advance
					Don Nichols
					nvt9001@belvoir-emh3.army.mil

disclaimer: This posting does not reflect the policy of the U.S.
	Government, or any part thereof.  The system in question is not
	the one from which this posting is being made.  (Mine is so old
	that it has the driver for the ACU compiled into the uucp, and I
	have great difficulty persuading it to initiate a call with a normal
	modem(Hayes) or an AT&T Penril ACU., so I am not connected
	directly to the net, even if I could find a feed. Pointers to a
	public-domain implementaion of a complete uucp would also be helpful)