> On Jan 8, 2008, at 6:29 AM, Douglas A. Tutty wrote:
quoted text
> >
> >I know that the FAQ says to just use dump to make backups but what if
> >you want a tape of a specific group of files for archiving?  When last
> >did the dump format change?  Since it reads the filesystem directly,  
> >I'd
> >assume that its filesystem-specific.  What if you want portablility
> >across OSs and file system types?  Is there any more-or-less universal
> >format?
> 
> tar(1) with gzip(1).
> 
> >Re Amanda:  for me, its likely too complex since I only have two boxes
> >and one is a desktop only.  Right now it runs its own backup script to
> >create a tarball then the main box rsyncs that over to it.
> 
> see? works fine.
> 
> Amanda basically does that, without using ssh and without some kind of  
> security (this may have changed recently). It also keeps a reference  
> database for which file is stored on which tape, and a index on each  
> tape of the contents.
> 

Well, right now, I just do full backups.  Incrementals get rather
tedius.  Especially since they find new files but they don't notice a
file that has been deleted.  So I don't need a list of what files are in
which tarball but rather just what date it is.  A simple log: this tape,
this date, this tarball.

quoted text
> All in all, pretty smart design. The best thing out of the features  
> AMANDA provides is this tidbit: everything is in gtar to keep things  
> as a standard.

As long as the archive format that it tells tar to use is compatible
with whatever version of tar you go to use in 20 years; but that's
another topic.

Thanks,

Doug.