From owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Thu Mar 15 16:23:25 2007 Return-Path: X-Original-To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Delivered-To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.freebsd.org (mx1.freebsd.org [69.147.83.52]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 389AE16A416 for ; Thu, 15 Mar 2007 16:23:25 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from martin@dc.cis.okstate.edu) Received: from dc.cis.okstate.edu (dc.cis.okstate.edu [139.78.100.219]) by mx1.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 0F28F13C44B for ; Thu, 15 Mar 2007 16:23:24 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from martin@dc.cis.okstate.edu) Received: from dc.cis.okstate.edu (localhost.okstate.edu [127.0.0.1]) by dc.cis.okstate.edu (8.13.3/8.13.3) with ESMTP id l2FGNOII040982 for ; Thu, 15 Mar 2007 11:23:24 -0500 (CDT) (envelope-from martin@dc.cis.okstate.edu) Message-Id: <200703151623.l2FGNOII040982@dc.cis.okstate.edu> To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Date: Thu, 15 Mar 2007 11:23:24 -0500 From: Martin McCormick Subject: Trying to Upgrade Version of Tar on a 5.3 System. X-BeenThere: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.5 Precedence: list List-Id: User questions List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Thu, 15 Mar 2007 16:23:25 -0000 I am transfering all our working group files from a FreeBSD5.3 platform to a bigger, faster and FreeBSD6.2 system. I discovered that bsdtar on the 5.3 system doesn't appear to have the --newer-than feature in which you only archive files newer than either a given date or a reference file such as the last monster tar ball from, say, /usr/home. The plan was to copy the monster tar ball over which has happened without problems, and then do a second pass just before we shut the older system down and pick up everybody's files which have changed in a hopefully much smaller tar ball which can then be overlayed to bring everything up to date as to what it was on the old system. The ports collection has gtar and freetar and the older system is using the bsdtar that unpacked from the iso image so it would not be productive to try to install what I already have as there is nothing wrong. Will either freetar or gtar give me the capability to use a reference file to only get the new files that have either appeared or changed since yesterday? Is there another way to use the existing tar that I might have missed that does the same thing? Thanks. Martin McCormick WB5AGZ Stillwater, OK Systems Engineer OSU Information Technology Department Network Operations Group