SUMMARY: moving installation with many sparse files.

From: Bob Parkinson <rwplists_at_omni.ac.uk>
Date: Thu, 18 Jun 1998 17:21:42 +0100 (BST)

Thanks for the quick response.

gnutar does the biz., thus:

gtar -C /roads -Scf - . | gtar -Sxf -

Replies below thanks all.



From: "Alan Rollow - Dr. File System's Home for Wayward Inodes."

If coming from an Advanced File System, vdump might be able to
preserve the holes. For UFS, if you can move the whole file
system and then trim out the parts you don't need, dump will
preserve holes. While dd(1) has an option to try, it may not
preserve the holes exactly. The conv=sparse option assumes
that any string of NULs can be turned into a hole if large
enough.

----
From: Harry Edmon
GNU tar with the -S option will properly save and restore sparse files.
----
From: Sean O'Connell
I think that vdump will handle sparse files by default ??? However,
it looks like gnutar might handle it for you:
`--sparse'
`-S'
     Invokes a GNU extension when adding files to an archive that
     handles sparse files efficiently.  .
Sean
-- 
From: Jon Eidson
Try GNUTAR ... I think it is on the freeware cd you received w/your DU
installation kit.  It contains a "--sparse" option to handle sparse
files "efficiently".  While I personally have not verified this it seems
logical this may work.

Received on Thu Jun 18 1998 - 18:20:30 NZST