On Tue, Aug 13, 2002 at 02:53:59PM -0400, John D. Bickle wrote: > Hi folks. > > I have a lot of log files that change in size almost constantly, and i understand >that when tar returns an error while trying to archive a file whose size has changed, >the entire dump of the filesystem fails (i understand this problem exists regardless >of what version of tar you are using, but please correct me if i am wrong). > > Does anyone how to prevent tar from returning this error (whether a particular >version of tar + flag, a hack, a patch, or whatever), and can you please send me the >URL to this version/doc? > > I have tried using dump instead of tar, but i suppose this will result in the same >problem and it doesn't work anyway for reasons best addressed in a seperate e-mail. > > I tried "googling" this problem, but to no avail. >
Is this a problem you are having or just something you understand? I believe that when amanda runs gnutar it uses the "--ignore-failed-read" option. This option has the effect of allowing that file to be skipped but continues the dump. At the end, gnutar exits with an non-zero exit status if the option was used AND a file had read errors. On most of my systems this non-zero status is not a problem. On my cygwin client it did cause problems so I modified tar's source code to force a zero exits status. Depending on the system you are using, you may be able to make a readonly "snapshot" of the file system before the dump/tar. -- Jon H. LaBadie [EMAIL PROTECTED] JG Computing 4455 Province Line Road (609) 252-0159 Princeton, NJ 08540-4322 (609) 683-7220 (fax)
