Error in TAR backup

[Karl_]

Hi,

I get a message "tar: couldn't get gname for gid 105" when I run the TAR backup. After I get this message, TAR backups another file system which is not included in my tar command. What do you think is the matter?

Thank you very much

Karl

[Patrick Wallek · Accepted solution]

The two are most likely completely unrelated.

The "tar: couldn't get gname for gid 105" just means that there was a file that had its group set for group 105, which does not exist in /etc/group. That is just an informational message.

If you post your tar command, and tell us what you did and did not want to back up, we can probably tell you where the problem is.

[Simon Hargrave]

Is GID 105 in your /etc/group file? I suspect not.

tar will cross filesystem boundaries, ie if you have a /opt and a /opt/something, a tar of /opt will include /opt/something unless you explicity specify otherwise.

[Karl_]

After scrutinizing the tar command, I'v found a directory that should not belong there.

Anyway, let me go back to the "gid 150" message. Does this mean that the files that have 105 were not included in the backup?

[Simon Hargrave]

The file will still be in the tar, it's just a warning message.

You can verify this logic with: -

touch afile
chgrp 678 afile
tar cvf arch.tar afile
tar tvf arch.tar

the output is: -

rw-r----- 335/678 0 Aug 13 15:46 2004 afile

which confirms the file has been backed up.

[Patrick Wallek]

No, the files will still be in the backup. If you go and do an 'll' on that file, you will see that the group will be 105 instead of a meaningful name.

Apparently at some point a group with a GID of 105 existed, but it does not anymore.

[Karl_]

Thank you very much for your inputs guys.

Best regards,

Karl