Re: [tlug] Using TAR

[roy lo <roylo@example.com>]

Jim Breen wrote:
> [Charles Muller ([tlug] Using TAR) writes:]
> 
>>>In connection with my prior font problem, as I indicated, I was hoping that
>>>I could save some important items--such as my mail, in the event that I have
>>>to do a reinstall. But every time I try to run TAR with my  /home/chuck
>>>directory, it crashes halfway through with no explanation as to why.
>>>
> 
> Are you sure you are not running into a file size limit? ISTR that some
> Linux file systems have a 2Gb limit on individual files. I ran into that
> when I tried to do a big backup tar, so I have to do several spanning
> different sets of subdirectories. I also have a set of exclusions
> using the "--exclude-from" option, as I don't want to back up static
> files available elsewhere.
> 
> I recall that when tar died it *did* warn me of a write failure.
> 
The 2Gbyte limit was before kernel 2.4.x; and I think you are right
about the warning as well