[Dvdrtools-users] Non-tar.gz archiving options for CD/DVD -- WAS: Burning a DVD with > 2GB files

[Bryan J. Smith]

On Sun, 2003-01-19 at 22:12, Scott Talbert wrote:
> That is _exactly_ what I'm doing.  When I was deciding on a backup 
> mechanism (tapes vs DVD), DVD seemed a lot cheaper.  I guess I just 
> assumed that the tape way, tar.gz, would have been appropriate.  I guess 
> it's not really a good idea in this case.

Don't feel bad.  One of the most horrendous articles I read was a guy
who not only used "tar.gz", but used "split" to fit them across multiple
CDs.  Talk about a "single point of failure!"

We have a guy in our local LUG who refuses to change, despite losing his
backups over and over.  He's still using CD-RW too (MO media has a much
higher error rate than recordable), and runs into them regularly.

[ In fact, my backup script, back2cd, started out as a request of his. ]

> OK, I'll look into afio.  Thanks for the info.

FYI, Mondo Rescue uses afio:  
http://www.microwerks.net/~hugo/  

It's come a long way.  Started out as bash scripts, now it's a full set
of C programs.  I've had varied success with it.  Mondo Rescue is a
complete "disaster recovery" solution, including making bootable,
self-restoring CDs.

> That sounds like a good idea also.  Actually, I would like to read the 
> whole article.

It's not on-line (ack!):  
http://www.sysadminmag.com/articles/2002/0204/  

> Do you know if it is possible to buy the issue in PDF somewhere?

Yes, you can get _all_ the SysAdmin (1992-2002) and Perl Journal
(1996-2002) on CD-ROM for $49 here:  
http://www.sysadminmag.com/extra/cd_order.htm  

> If not, I will just buy a hard copy.

Alternatively, I was writing a "HOWTO" for my "back2cd".  Although it is
far from finished, it _does_ have "Chapter 8:  Design" which covers why
"double archiving" is bad (single point of failure):  
http://www.smithconcepts.com/files/scripts/back2cd/back2cd_manual.pdf  

The script is here:  
http://www.smithconcepts.com/files/scripts/back2cd/back2cd.tcsh  

[ I highly recommend you get that one, instead of the one from the
SysAdmin mag zip file.  Why?  Because SysAdmin stupidly packs it in DOS,
and LF/CR are added, preventing the script from running properly unless
you extract with "-a". ]

The "big deal" about my script is that you now have a directly
_browseable_ tree on the CD.  No "unarchiving" before looking at it. 
The files are just compressed on an individual basis.  So it's _awesome_
for "point backups" and "point restores."  Especially since it's
designed so users can create their own backups and image files (and then
record them on their own workstation's CD-R drive).  It's not designed
as a "total disaster recovery solution" (like Mondo) but I use it to
backup my NFS server's /home which is good enough for me.

BTW, it's only good for single CD backups, not spanning.  But it handles
long-filenames, symlinks and other stuff quite well.  You can even give
it a list of files to ignore.  [ NOTE:  You also might need to disable
"Joliet" to cope with long path/filenames -- I run into that when I try
to do my entire /home ] 

But it's fast.  I use LZO by default (real-time compressor -- 3-5x
faster than GZip, but only about 10-15% less compression), makes a 600MB
image with 1-1.6GB of data in ~5-7 minutes, 4.5GB image with 7.5-14GB om
about 35-50 minutes.  LZO is also good about recognizing pre-compressed
files after the first block or two, and storing them uncompressed
(unlike GZip/Bzip2).

For more on comparison of LZO (lzop) v. LZ77 (GZip) v. BWT (BZip2), see
this post of mine:  
http://www.matrixlist.com/pipermail/leaplist/2001-December/016244.html  


-- 
Bryan J. Smith, E.I. (BSECE)       Contact Info:  http://thebs.org
[ http://thebs.org/files/resume/BryanJonSmith_certifications.pdf ]
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"Bryan J. Smith uses a modicum of talent and a membership in IEEE
 to harass others and show off" -- Peter Buxton

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