tar error

[S.Keung]

Hi,

I am newbie of HP-UX and Omniback II.
I use tar (tar cf /dev/rmt/0m /) to backup data into tape, but it shows:

tar: couldn't get gname for gid 155
tar: couldn't get uname for uid 277

Is the tape full?
How can I check the remain space of the tape?
Thank you!!!

[T G Manikandan]

This is because there are files with ownership 155 and 277.

These uid's which were associated with a username in /etc/passwd must have been removed.

The users with uid 155 & 277 are not present but the files for which they were owners are still present.

If you just list down the files you will not have the username in the owner field when doing a ls -l.Only a uid will be displayed.

[Michael Tully · Accepted solution]

The tar command is telling you that it has encountered a file that has a 'uid' as an owner (user id 277) not a valid account and a similar story with the gid (gname 155) You'll find that these user id's and group id's have been deleted and the 'uid/gid' number remain as the owners and groups of files. This is not an error message, purely informational. You cannot check how much space is left on a tape with many backup products. Even omniback will guess, depending on the media type and how much has been used.

[T G Manikandan]

you can print the files for which there is no user associated in the password database

#find /tmp -nouser -exec ls -l {} \;

[S.Keung]

Thank you for your answer!
In some days, i backup much data.
If the tape is really full, what will happen?

[Tom Ward_1]

Hello,

From tar's man page:
When end-of-tape is reached, tar prompts the user for a new special file and continues.

I didn't know that off hand. I've heard that gnu tar would span tape, but native HPUX tar would not. From the man page that seems to be incorrect.

[T G Manikandan]

tar does not span multiple tapes it the data is more.

Even tar,cpio,pax backup utilities do not support largefiles.
Also tar has problems with filename exceeding certain length.

//The best option would be to use fbackup to backup the files//

if you are most insisted on tar then grab the GNU version of tar from

http://hpux.cs.utah.edu/hppd/hpux/Gnu/tar-1.13.25/

Also check for the dependencies for the installation as pointed above in the link

[Michael Schulte zur Sur]

Hi,

fbackup indeed would be a better choice.
You also chould either delete those orphan files or associate them with another user.

man tar says:
When end-of-tape is reached, tar prompts the user for a new special
file and continues.

So i would assume, you change tape and give the same device?

greetings,

Michael