Re: [SLUG] CPIO backups

[luke@xxxxxxxxxxx]

On 24 May, George Vieira wrote:
>  Hi all,
>  
>  I have a wonderful script I used on SCO which I have modified a bit for
>  Linux but have this problem with the device /dev/nst0.
>  To cut it short this is what I do for an example:
>  
>  cd /home/georgev
>  find . -mount -depth -print | cpio -ocvB -O /dev/nst0
>  cd /home/flintstone
>  find . -mount -depth -print | cpio -ocvB -O /dev/nst0
>  
>  This all works fine but when I try to restore from it, it gets this error
>  and ejects the tape.
>  "Found end of tape.  To continue, type device/file name when ready."
>  
>  Sometimes it happens immediately when trying to restore/verify the tape
>  after a backup and other times it happens after the first volumn
>  "/home/georgev" has finished and starts the /home/flinstone volumn that it
>  happens.

This is probably way too late a reply, sorry.

But the answer is that the idiots who improved cpio reassigned the old
ascii-mode c flag to have a new meaning.

You can read the old data by using

	cpio -ivbH odc

-H odc means "the format that used to be specified with the old c
option"

And it gets worse - I believe that if you write data using the -H odc
specifier, it corrupts the data and cannot be read.

I think of it as a kind of Microsoft-style forced upgrade.  You
basically have to switch over to using the new c format, though you can
still read old data written with an earlier version of cpio.

luke