Look at the GNU tar manual (not the man page) for a good explanation of what sparse files are and how --sparse handles them:
http://www.gnu.org/manual/tar-1.12/html_node/tar_121.html Frank --On Tuesday, April 30, 2002 15:49:24 -0700 Luke Miller <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > I am having some problems with GNU tar and amanda. I am running amanda 2.4.2p2 > with gnutar 1.13.19 (I have also tried 1.13.25) on Solaris 8 (sparc). > The command line that I am running is: > > /usr/local/bin/tar --create --file /tmp/conf.tar --directory /export/raid/conf >--one-file-system --sparse --listed-incremental >/private/amanda/var/amanda/gnutar-lists/nfs-1c-bvtn_export_raid_conf_5.new --totals . > > Replace /tmp/conf.tar for - when it is run by amanda. > > When I run this is produces a tar file that is about 5 megs in size and contains >2556 entries. > If I run the same command line but without the --sparse I get a tar file that is >about 23 megs > and has 9535 enties. > > So, what is the --sparse doing here that is causing it not to backup all the files? > What is the best way around this? I would hack the code to remove --sparse but I >want > to have an understanding of what it is doing first. > > Thanks, > > Luke > > > ***************************************************** > * Luke Miller Unix System Administrator * > * Integra Telecom 503-748-4549 * > ***************************************************** > -- Frank Smith [EMAIL PROTECTED] Systems Administrator Voice: 512-374-4673 Hoover's Online Fax: 512-374-4501
