RE: [Bug-tar] Multivolume Archives

[John McDole]

-----Original Message-----
From:   address@hidden on behalf of Sergey Poznyakoff

The purpose of the end-of-tape script is to inform the operator about
the fact that the tape has finished and make sure the fresh one is
provided. The only thing that matters for tar is the script exit value:
if it exits with 0, tar continues the operation, otherwise the operation
is aborted. The script runs with stdout and stderr connected to the
terminal, so whatever it prints is meant to draw attention of someone
who's in charge of the backup.
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I understand the reason for notifying an operator to switch tapes, but what if any environment variables are set to allow the operator to know what tape is needing attention?

I've got a homebrew backup script that handles alot of options, and one I've always wanted to add was to auto breakup the tar into multiple volumes (for later burning to cd/dvd media).  I've seen many people say "run it through spilt", but I dont want to the data that is wholy contained in the volume to rely on pervious cd's / dvd's.

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John Thomas McDole