The UNIX and Linux Forums  

Go Back   The UNIX and Linux Forums > OS Specific Forums > SUN Solaris
Error tar'ing files to tape Error tar'ing files to tape
Google UNIX.COM
Forums Portal Register Forum Rules FAQContribute Members List Arcade Search Today's Posts Mark Forums Read


SUN Solaris The Solaris Operating System, usually known simply as Solaris, is a free Unix-based operating system introduced by Sun Microsystems .

More UNIX and Linux Forum Topics You Might Find Helpful
Thread Thread Starter Forum Replies Last Post
tar'ing and regular expressions sirbrian UNIX for Dummies Questions & Answers 2 07-10-2007 04:17 AM
tar: tape blocksize error big123456 UNIX for Advanced & Expert Users 1 03-26-2007 03:57 AM
tar'ing and zipping files FredSmith UNIX for Dummies Questions & Answers 4 05-02-2006 12:09 PM
Tape error. krk123 SCO 1 12-07-2005 08:04 AM
SCSI Tape Error Andre UNIX for Dummies Questions & Answers 1 05-23-2002 03:42 AM

Reply
 
Submit Tools LinkBack Thread Tools Display Modes
  #1  
Old 10-05-2005
Registered User
  

Join Date: Sep 2005
Posts: 85
Error tar'ing files to tape
I'm trying to tar a bunch of files off to a tape, but for one specific file (it is fairly large, roughly 10Gb) I get the error:

too large to archive

Does tar have a limit of the size of file it can write off to tape? I'm using SunOS 5.8.

Thanks!
-Fred
Reply With Quote
Forum Sponsor
  #2  
Old 10-05-2005
Perderabo's Avatar
Unix Daemon
  

Join Date: Aug 2001
Location: Washington DC Area
Posts: 8,613
Well the tar man page says:
Quote:
USAGE
See largefile(5) for the description of the behavior of tar when encountering files greater than or equal to 2 Gbyte ( 2**31 bytes).
So why not read the largefile man page?
Reply With Quote
  #3  
Old 10-05-2005
Registered User
  

Join Date: Sep 2005
Posts: 85
The man page for largefile says that tar is "large file aware" ... so why would I have received that message to begin with?
Reply With Quote
  #4  
Old 10-05-2005
Perderabo's Avatar
Unix Daemon
  

Join Date: Aug 2001
Location: Washington DC Area
Posts: 8,613
Hmmm... good question! Sun has made the source code available. Looking at tar.c, I see that the limit is from this line:
#define TAR_OFFSET_MAX 077777777777

That is only eleven octal digits and it looks like 12 should be able to fit. So I guess that I don't know why that is.
Code:
$ bc
ibase=8
77777777777
8589934591
So I guess that 8,589,934,591 is the limit.
Reply With Quote
  #5  
Old 10-06-2005
Registered User
  

Join Date: Sep 2005
Posts: 85
Would tar-1.15.1 be able to "tar" files of 10Gb+?
Would tar-1.15.1 be able to "tar" files of 10Gb+?
Reply With Quote
  #6  
Old 10-06-2005
RTM's Avatar
RTM RTM is offline
Hog Hunter
  
Simon Champion!
Join Date: Apr 2002
Location: On my motorcycle
Posts: 3,039
Fred - you asked "So is it possible to tar a 10GB+ file? How???" in the wrong thread - I deleted it but posted this to keep the info in your thread.
Reply With Quote
  #7  
Old 10-06-2005
Perderabo's Avatar
Unix Daemon
  

Join Date: Aug 2001
Location: Washington DC Area
Posts: 8,613
Quote:
Originally Posted by FredSmith
Would tar-1.15.1 be able to "tar" files of 10Gb+?
I do not use GNU tar, but I read the documentation. It seems to support a variety of archive format and some of them should be able to do it. The default archive format is selected at compile time so I guess you should specify the format to be sure.
--format=gnu.
--format=posix

are the two formats which the docs claim support unlimited files. The posix format is a newer format than Sun uses.
--format=ustar
would select the older posix format in use by Sun.

So while I haven't tried this, I think it should work.


Edit: The GNU tar docs is a very useful document so I will include a link.
Last edited by Perderabo; 10-06-2005 at 07:56 AM. Reason: Add link
Reply With Quote
Google The UNIX and Linux Forums
Reply

« Help me 'bout DNS Server | Is it available? »
Thread Tools
Display Modes
Linear Mode Linear Mode




All times are GMT -7. The time now is 10:33 AM.

The UNIX and Linux Forums RSS Feeds - Contact Us - The UNIX and Linux Forums - Archive - Top

Powered by: vBulletin, Copyright ©2000 - 2006, Jelsoft Enterprises Limited.
The UNIX and Linux Forums Content Copyright ©1993-2008. All Rights Reserved.Ad Management by RedTyger Visit The Complex Event Processing Blog

Content Relevant URLs by vBSEO 3.2.0