[plug] tar file limitation ?

[Daniel]

On Wed, 2003-05-21 at 11:58, Dirk wrote:
> 
> Hello everyone, a newbee here...
> 
> Could anyone assist me do you know if tar has a file size limitation? I was
> using tar command do gzip server directories over an nfs link to create an
> automatic backup onto another hdd which I can then later at leisure transfer
> to dat tape. The server being backed up is a redhat 7.2 and the nfs server
> machine is running mandrake 9.1 I found that once the files hit 2.4gig they
> all failed? any ideas ? will updating  the tar version fix it ?
> 
> Also while I am asking does anyone know were on the Mandrake Box is the
> drkesync software ? apparently it can sync directories between servers...
> 
> Thanks
> Dirk
> 

Hi Dirk,
with a standard setup on Mdk 9.1 you're probably using ext3 and as far
as I know the maximum file size for ext3 is 2gig.  For reiser it's
peta-sobigitsirrelevent.  

Have you tried the -j option for tar to use bzip2 compression?  There's
also the fantastic exclude option that lets you say no to things like
/mnt /floppy /home /proc.  Watch the exclude file setup - from memory
you can have the directories on a seperate line each, but if you have an
extra carriage return on the file it doesn't work. Then there's also the
size limit option for removeable media, but I'm guessing you won't need
it ....
----
tar -cvpjf /home/me/tarfile.tar /targetdir --exclude-from
/home/me/excludefile.txt
----
 cat excludefile.txt
/home
/mnt
/floppy
/proc
----
Tar and the j option should be ok with Mdk9.1, but have been updated
since 7.2.

Hope this is of some value,
Daniel.