[Bug-tar] tar command option suggestion...

[Gomes, Robert]

Hello,

 

After a discussion on computing.net, I’m writing to suggest a new option for the tar command.  Namely, to copy an entire tar file from tape to disk without extracting its contents.  On disk, the cp command copies whole tar files, but it seems you can’t do the same when the tar is on tape.  Ideally, I see this option on the same peer level with other tar command major options such as create/list/extract.  Discussion link here:

 

http://www.computing.net/answers/linux/copy-entire-tar-file-from-tape-to-disk-without-extraction/31382.html

 

It is not clear to me whether this is a common need in the community at large.  I can only conclude it is not, based on it being the year 2011 and one would think this need would have been voiced a long time ago if it was ubiquitous.  For reference, our use case is to move a tar file from tape to a NAS device (ideally, in its tarred form).  I fully expected to discover some command in Linux to handle this operation, but so far to no avail.  Community suggestions around using dd or piping seem to border on blind stabs as opposed to having a legitimate, concrete means to carry out this particular operation with data integrity.

 

To work around it, I extract the tar from tape to an intermediate disk area, then retar it onto the NAS device.

 

Thank you for your consideration.

 

Robert Gomes

address@hidden

 

 

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