On Thu, Sep 13, 2012 at 1:28 AM, Glenn Fowler <[email protected]> wrote:
>
> On Wed, 12 Sep 2012 03:08:50 +0200 Simon Toedt wrote:
>> I'm in the process of updating our development machines and noticed
>> that using AST pax is a lot faster than GNU tar.
>
>> But... is there any catch I should know about? What are the
>> recommended options to backup a Linux home directory and what are the
>> recommended options to restore it?
>
> # to create the backup -- -P will not follow symlinks
> cd
> pax -P -wvf /some-dir-not-under-$HOME/home.tgz -x tgz .
> # to restore -- -N will only restore files that are newer in the archive
> cd
> pax -N -rvf /some-dir-not-under-$HOME/home.tgz
>
> if you plan on doing this periodically then use the base+deltas method
> but be aware that on restore this method will delete files that have been
> created since the last delta -- so make an up-to-date delta before restoring
> an old one
>
> *before you backup/restore precious dirs/files do some tests on throwaway 
> copies*
>
> # create a base
> cd
> pax -P -wvf /some-dir-not-under-$HOME/home.base.pax .
>
> # later create deltas -- delta will only contain changes (mod, create, delete)
> cd
> pax -P -wvf /some-dir-not-under-$HOME/home-01.pax -z 
> /some-dir-not-under-$HOME/home.base.pax .
>  ...
> pax -P -wvf /some-dir-not-under-$HOME/home-02.pax -z 
> /some-dir-not-under-$HOME/home.base.pax .
>
> # list delta
> cd
> pax -vf /some-dir-not-under-$HOME/home-02.pax -z 
> /some-dir-not-under-$HOME/home.base.pax
>
> # read delta
> cd
> pax -rvf /some-dir-not-under-$HOME/home-02.pax -z 
> /some-dir-not-under-$HOME/home.base.pax
>
> after looking at the delta restore semantics -Nr ... -z ... should not
> delete files newer than the delta (it currently does)

Thank you.

IMO it may be nice to have a Rosetta stone to translate tar/GNU tar
options into pax/AST pax options.
For example, what are the pax equivalents for these calls:
1. tar -cvf - homedir | bzip2 -9 >foo.tar.bz2
2. bzcat <foo.tar.bz2 | tar -xvf -

Does AST pax support NFS4 ACL records?

Simon
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