We are copying from ext2 to nfs (ext2) file system. The version of cp that we have here is 4.0p. I was not using --sparse=always. I will try it and see the results. The way oracle allocates data files is such that they are bound to have a lot of blocks of 0 bytes. We have oracle block size of 8 kb and fs block size is 512 bytes. In empty blocks, oracle only writes the header and rest of the block is empty. I hope using the sparse option will solve this problem. But with growing use of oracle in Linux arena, it should be the default functionality, imho. Shamsher Sandhu Jim Meyering wrote: > > Shamsher Sandhu <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > | I am using Oracle here on Redhat 6.2 load. We are copying oracle > | databfiles for backup using cp command. The copy is happening when oracle > | is down. The copy is being done across nfs. The problem is that sometimes > | the copied file is of different size than the original one. The difference > | can range between 200 to 300 mb on a 500 mb file. I discovered this while > | to restore from backup and I realised that I could not recover beacuse of > | thius problem. I have seen this problemn at least 5 times after that and > | happens with many files. Could it be that oracle datafiles have embedded > | EOF characters that confuse cp into thinking that the file has ended or > | what. Any way I will leave it upto you to figure it out. But please keep > | me informed about this problem. > > Thanks for the report. > >From what type of file system (df -T) are you copying? > What type of file system are you copying *to*? > What version of cp are you using? > > Did you try using the --sparse=always option? > > There may be something wrong with cp's code that detects > whether a file is sparse. > > Did you try comparing the files before and after? > The destination file (the one that's way too big) > probably has big blocks of zero bytes that correspond to > `holes' in the original. > > Would you please see if the problem persists when using the > latest test release? > > ftp://alpha.gnu.org/gnu/fetish/fileutils-4.0.32.tar.gz > > I expect to make an official release of the fileutils within the next > month or so, and would really like to resolve any problems before then. > > Regards, > Jim
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