topic gnu tar limit in Operating System - Linux

gnu tar limit

Maaz — Mon, 30 Aug 2010 17:56:54 GMT

OS: SLES 10 SP2
kernel: 2.6.16.x

size of myfile is 80 GB.

# mt –f /dev/nst0 eom

# tar –cvf /dev/nst0 myfile

tar: /dev/nst0: cannot write: input /output error
tar: error is not recoverable: exiting now.

whats the maximum file size gnu tar can backup ?

Regards
Maaz

Re: gnu tar limit

Steven Schweda — Mon, 30 Aug 2010 18:26:27 GMT

> what[']s the maximum file size gnu tar can
> backup ?

That might depend on which version of GNU
"tar" you're using, but for anything
reasonably recent, I wouldn't expect 80GB to
cause trouble.

tar --version
man tar

> OS: SLES 10 SP2
> kernel: 2.6.16.x

Now that we have the unimportant information,
how about some useful info?

What, exactly, is "/dev/nst0"?

> # tar -cvf /dev/nst0 myfile
>
> tar: /dev/nst0: cannot write: input /output error

How much time did that take? Is "/dev/nst0"
(whatever it is) write protected? Is there
any free space on its medium?

> # mt -f /dev/nst0 eom

So, is there already stuff on this medium?
How much? Written how?

Re: gnu tar limit

dirk dierickx — Tue, 31 Aug 2010 06:59:05 GMT

you should not be looking at tar for the source of the problem, there is something wrong with /dev/nst0. the tape could be full, the tape could be bad or too small for this file etc etc