From owner-freebsd-bugs Sun Dec 20 17:38:17 1998 Return-Path: Received: (from majordom@localhost) by hub.freebsd.org (8.8.8/8.8.8) id RAA18509 for freebsd-bugs-outgoing; Sun, 20 Dec 1998 17:38:17 -0800 (PST) (envelope-from owner-freebsd-bugs@FreeBSD.ORG) Received: from nina.pagesz.net (nina.pagesz.net [208.194.157.3]) by hub.freebsd.org (8.8.8/8.8.8) with ESMTP id RAA18504 for ; Sun, 20 Dec 1998 17:38:15 -0800 (PST) (envelope-from rhh@pagesz.net) Received: from stealth.dummynet. (juana-18.pagesz.net [208.213.126.18]) by nina.pagesz.net (8.8.7/8.8.7) with ESMTP id UAA32626; Sun, 20 Dec 1998 20:38:14 -0500 Received: (from rhh@localhost) by stealth.dummynet. (8.9.1/8.8.8) id UAA02085; Sun, 20 Dec 1998 20:39:31 -0500 (EST) (envelope-from rhh) Message-ID: <19981220203931.A1514@pagesz.net> Date: Sun, 20 Dec 1998 20:39:31 -0500 From: Randall Hopper To: Matthias Buelow Cc: freebsd-bugs@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Re: bin/9135: tar doesn't back up device files References: <199812200412.XAA10654@stealth.dummynet.> <199812200439.FAA08087@altair.mayn.de> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii X-Mailer: Mutt 0.91.1i In-Reply-To: <199812200439.FAA08087@altair.mayn.de>; from Matthias Buelow on Sun, Dec 20, 1998 at 05:39:31AM +0100 Sender: owner-freebsd-bugs@FreeBSD.ORG Precedence: bulk X-Loop: FreeBSD.org Matthias Buelow: |"aa8vb@pagesz.net" wrote: | |> Using tar to backup my root partition, I find that tar can't |>back up many (around 80) of my device files. The errors are all of |>this form: |> |> tar: dev/da0s3: minor number too large; not dumped |> tar: dev/rda0s3: minor number too large; not dumped |> tar: dev/da0s4: minor number too large; not dumped | |That's why you should use cpio or dump to backup filesystems, not tar. I prefer to use tar because it seems to "have the smarts" to talk to a tape drive correctly. I don't know what's at work under-the-hood, but when I "tar -f /dev/nrsa0" to my Exabyte tape drive, I can archive a given tree in 20-30 min. If I use "cpio > /dev/nrsa0" (even if I compress before sending it to tape), it never finishes (well, I let it sit-and-spin for over 10 hours; no dice). And I can't do "cpio > file.cpio; tar -f /dev/nrst0 file.cpio" because I usually don't have as much free space available as is used. At any rate, it seems FreeBSD tar not working on a stock FreeBSD UFS tree is a bug. Is there a technical reason why it cannot work correctly? Thanks, Randall To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-bugs" in the body of the message