*BSD News Article 1634


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From: pothovst@uther.calvin.edu (Steve Pothoven)
Newsgroups: comp.unix.bsd
Subject: Re: TAR to multiple floppies
Message-ID: <pothovst.709221647@uther>
Date: 22 Jun 92 14:00:47 GMT
Article-I.D.: uther.pothovst.709221647
References: <manningc.708914533@marsh>
Sender: news@calvin.edu (The Usenet newsboy)
Organization: Calvin College
Lines: 31

manningc@marsh.cs.curtin.edu.au (Colin Manning) writes:

>Hi,
>   Can I use tar to produce a compressed archive straight to floppies?
>   If so, how?

Yes you can.  There are probably multiple ways to do this.
Let's say you've mounted your floppy as /home/user/floppy
Then you could type:
tar -cf - <filename or directory> | compress > /home/user/floppy/tarfile.tar.Z

(Note: the <>'s around "filename or directory" are just used as brackets
and are not necessary in the actual command)


I would like to ask a related question myself:
I'm working on a program to archive one's own directory and cut it
into disk size blocks (say 1.44megs) -- (That part works,  it prompts
you for new disks and everything ... very nice)   What I would like to
know is, when I'm restoring my directory from disk, and it's prompting
me for ther next disk as it needs it.. how can I detect when I've just
read the end of the tar file?  TAR signifies it's end with a block of
NULLs, but that block is no necessarily at the end of the file, and I
may not necessarily read that block in all at once.


--
 _____________    _____              |	The most exciting phrase to hear in sc
(___  |  |__  \  /|__ Steve Pothoven |	ience, the one that heralds new
____) |  |_____\/ |__________________|	discoveries, is not "Eureka!" (I found
    (pothovst@uther.calvin.edu)      |	 it!) but "That's funny ..."