topic Re: tar is not working with a file more than 8GB in Operating System - HP-UX

tar is not working with a file more than 8GB

Yaboto — Fri, 09 May 2008 13:41:42 GMT

Hi,

Please advise me on what to do to make tar backup and compress files that are more than 8GB.

Regards,
Berenger

Re: tar is not working with a file more than 8GB

Steven E. Protter — Fri, 09 May 2008 14:11:37 GMT

Shalom,

Make smaller files.

tar had to be patched to get up to the 8 GB file limit. I know of no versions that will make files bigger than that.

SEP

Re: tar is not working with a file more than 8GB

Javed Khan_1 — Fri, 09 May 2008 14:16:55 GMT

Hi,

try gnu tar (gtar) , you need to download and install this freeware on your system

Regards,
Javed

Re: tar is not working with a file more than 8GB

Javed Khan_1 — Fri, 09 May 2008 14:25:13 GMT

http://hpux.cs.utah.edu/hppd/hpux/Gnu/tar-1.19/

Re: tar is not working with a file more than 8GB

Patrick Wallek — Fri, 09 May 2008 14:41:36 GMT

>> I know of no versions that will make files bigger than that.

Actually, tar can **CREATE** files of any size.

The HP-UX native tar cannot **READ/ARCHIVE** files that are larger than 8GB in size.

Re: tar is not working with a file more than 8GB

Steven Schweda — Fri, 09 May 2008 16:56:20 GMT

GNU "tar" is the easy answer. Apparently
it's up to version 1.20 now.

http://www.gnu.org/software/tar/

The problem with "tar" was a quirky (and
limited) format for storing file sizes. One
relatively simple change squeezed a few more
bits in to get from 2GB to 8GB. The next
(even less compatible) change switched from
ASCII octal digits to raw binary, which
should be good for a while.

Re: tar is not working with a file more than 8GB

Rasheed Tamton — Sun, 11 May 2008 07:34:50 GMT

Hi,

You can use fbackup instead of tar. If the archive is to be moved to another OS, then as SEP said make the file smaller.

Use split command to split the large file to smaller sizes; then use tar and gzip and move the file to destination server. Unzip and untar it there; then cat the split files to the original one.

If the original file is 10000MB file; you could split it to two 5000MB files as below:

split -b5000m mylargefile
[it will create two 5000Mb files called xaa & xab] ;

tar/gzip and move to the destination host.
untar/gunzip, you will get back the xaa/ab

cat x* > mylargerfile

Regards,
Rasheed Tamton.

Re: tar is not working with a file more than 8GB

Sajjad Sahir — Sun, 11 May 2008 07:44:51 GMT

Dear berag

tar support lesser than 2GB size for backup
if u want more more than 2GB use fbackup

thanks and regards

Sajjad Sahir

Re: tar is not working with a file more than 8GB

Steven Schweda — Sun, 11 May 2008 12:07:58 GMT

> tar support lesser than 2GB size [...]

GNU "tar" has no such limitation. Not at
2GB, not at 8GB. (It handles long file
names, too.)

Yes, there are many ways to work around the
limitations of an old "tar" program, but, as
I said, the _easy_ way is to use a better
"tar" program, like, say, GNU "tar".

Re: tar is not working with a file more than 8GB

James R. Ferguson — Sun, 11 May 2008 13:47:40 GMT

Hi Beraq:

> Rasheed: You can use fbackup instead of tar.

Beware that this is fine if your copy is going to be from HP-UX and to HP-UX (only!). 'fbackup' and 'frecover' are HP-UX ONLY.

As Steven said, the GNU tar doesn't have an 8GB limitation. As an open-source tool you could easily install it on any UNIX/LINUX necessary, too. Thus, it is one avenue that you might want to explore.

A better definition of your environments and requirements would lead to better, more definitive solutions.

Regards!

...JRF...

Re: tar is not working with a file more than 8GB

Mohd Azril Dollah — Mon, 12 May 2008 00:49:30 GMT

Hi,

May be you can consider using cpio command.

Go to top directory to be backup.

find . -depth |cpio - pvdm /dir

Re: tar is not working with a file more than 8GB

Dennis Handly — Mon, 12 May 2008 07:54:00 GMT

>Mohd: May be you can consider using cpio command.

A quick look at cpio(1) shows:
WARNINGS
Because of industry standards and interoperability goals, cpio does not support the archival of files larger than 2 GB or files ...

Re: tar is not working with a file more than 8GB

Rasheed Tamton — Mon, 12 May 2008 10:15:07 GMT

I already mentioned about different OS
>If the archive is to be moved to another OS, then as SEP said make the file smaller.