Dear sir,

I used Solaris 2.5.1. I used command "tar" below.
tar cvf /backup/home.tar /export/home

I can backup about 10 minutes but can"t finish backup.
And then it has error messages below.

tar: write error: Invalid argument

Please let me know how to solve this problem.

Thank you very much.
regards,
Pom.

[ Post a follow-up to this message ]

In comp.unix.solaris Pom <pom2001@my-deja.com> wrote:
quote:

>   Dear sir,


Hi! Binky!
quote:

>
>     I used Solaris 2.5.1. I used command "tar" below.
>        tar cvf /backup/home.tar /export/home
>
>     I can backup about 10 minutes but can"t finish backup.
>   And then it has error messages below.
>
>       tar: write error: Invalid argument
>
>     Please let me know how to solve this problem.


Show us:

du -ks /export/home
df -k

-am	© 2003

[ Post a follow-up to this message ]

"Pom" <pom2001@my-deja.com> wrote in message
news:7c0bff59.0310082316.4aff9c17@posting.google.com...
quote:

> Dear sir,
>
>   I used Solaris 2.5.1. I used command "tar" below.
>      tar cvf /backup/home.tar /export/home
>
>   I can backup about 10 minutes but can"t finish backup.
> And then it has error messages below.
>
>     tar: write error: Invalid argument
>
>   Please let me know how to solve this problem.
>
>            Thank you very much.
>                regards,
>                  Pom.


While I don't recall the exact error messages out of 2.5.1 tar I would
suspect that you have either run out of space on the /backup partition or
the tar file could not fit within 2 GB.

How big is the tar file when the error happens?  How much space is available
on the /backup partition?

Brad

[ Post a follow-up to this message ]

> 	Show us:
quote:

>
> 	du -ks /export/home
> 	df -k
>


# du -ks /export/home
2339697 /export/home

# df -k   (before backup)
Filesystem            kbytes    used   avail capacity  Mounted on
/dev/dsk/c0t0d0s0      95965   25028   61347    29%    /
/dev/dsk/c0t0d0s3     962751  609477  257004    71%    /usr
/proc                      0       0       0     0%    /proc
fd                         0       0       0     0%    /dev/fd
/dev/dsk/c0t0d0s4     481067  275921  157046    64%    /var
/dev/dsk/c0t0d0s6      95965   51247   35128    60%    /download
/dev/dsk/c0t0d0s7    6022995 2339704 3081001    44%    /export/home
/dev/dsk/c0t1d0s1    7949730 1859091 5295669    26%    /backup
/dev/dsk/c0t1d0s0     481067  283053  149914    66%    /misc
/dev/dsk/c0t0d0s5     481067  217502  215465    51%    /opt

# df -k (after backup and can"t finish backup)
Filesystem            kbytes    used   avail capacity  Mounted on
/dev/dsk/c0t0d0s0      95965   25028   61347    29%    /
/dev/dsk/c0t0d0s3     962751  609493  256988    71%    /usr
/proc                      0       0       0     0%    /proc
fd                         0       0       0     0%    /dev/fd
/dev/dsk/c0t0d0s4     481067  276201  156766    64%    /var
/dev/dsk/c0t0d0s6      95965   51247   35128    60%    /download
/dev/dsk/c0t0d0s7    6022995 2337984 3082721    44%    /export/home
/dev/dsk/c0t1d0s1    7949730 3958394 3196366    56%    /backup
/dev/dsk/c0t1d0s0     481067  283053  149914    66%    /misc
/dev/dsk/c0t0d0s5     481067  217502  215465    51%    /opt

And size of tar file that can"t finish backup.

# ls -l /backup/home.tar
-rw-------   1 root     other    2147481600 Oct 10 10:56 /backup/home.tar

regards,
Pom.

[ Post a follow-up to this message ]

> While I don't recall the exact error messages out of 2.5.1 tar I would
quote:

> suspect that you have either run out of space on the /backup partition or
> the tar file could not fit within 2 GB.
>
> How big is the tar file when the error happens?  How much space is availab
le
> on the /backup partition?
>
> Brad


# df -k /backup (before)
Filesystem            kbytes    used   avail capacity  Mounted on
/dev/dsk/c0t1d0s1    7949730 1859091 5295669    26%    /backup

# df -k /backup (after)
Filesystem            kbytes    used   avail capacity  Mounted on
/dev/dsk/c0t1d0s1    7949730 3956874 3197886    56%    /backup

And size of tar file when the error happens.
# ls -l /backup/home.tar
-rw-------   1 root     other    2147481600 Oct 10 10:56 /backup/home.tar

regards,
Pom.

[ Post a follow-up to this message ]

Pom wrote:
quote:

> And size of tar file that can"t finish backup.
>
> # ls -l /backup/home.tar
> -rw-------   1 root     other    2147481600 Oct 10 10:56 /backup/home.tar


That's really, really close to the largest file you can have that
uses 32-bit offsets:

$ echo '2^31 - 2147481600' | bc -l
2048
$

I would say it's highly likely you're running into that issue.

Unfortunately, you are running 2.5.1, which is something like 6 or 7
years old.  I can't recall whether it has support for 64-bit files
(large files).  Here are some things you could try:

(1)  "man mount_ufs" and see if describes a "largefiles" mount option.
If so, remount with that option.  You can add it to /etc/vfstab,
or do "mount" to see the current options, then do
"mount -o remount,largefiles,(otheroptions) /backup" to
remount it with large files.

(2)  In case tar isn't largefile aware but the shell is, you could
try this command instead:

tar cf - export/home > /backup/home.tar

If this works, it will be because it has the shell open the
file (and pass the special flags to open() to allow large
files) and then allows tar to write to standard output as
if it's a stream, in which case size doesn't matter.

Of course, #2 requires that you have mounted your filesystem
so that it can handle large files.

If neither of those works, you could of course upgrade.  Or,
another way of dealing with backups would be to write the
backup to several smaller files.  Here's a little shell script
I call "breakup" that will let you do that:

#! /bin/sh

prefix="$1"
piece=0
filename="$prefix"."$piece"
filelist="$prefix".list
quote:

> "$filelist"


while :
do
echo 1>&2 "writing to '$filename'"
dd obs=128k count=8192 of="$filename"
if [ `ls -l "$filename" | awk '{print $5}'` -eq 0 ]
then
rm "$filename"
break
fi
echo "$filename" >> "$filelist"

piece=`expr $piece + 1`
filename="$prefix"."$piece"
done

All you'd have to do is something like this:

cd / && tar cf - export/home | breakup /backup/home.tar

This should create /backup/home.tar.0 up through /backup/home.tar.1,
each with as size of 1 GB or less.  You can then use "cat" to put
them back together again, or at least I think you can.  (Presumably
"cat" can handle several separate 1 GB files when writing to stdout.)
Anyway, the command should look like this:

cat `cat /backup/home.tar.list` | tar tvf -

Naturally, this is not something I've tried before.  The best solution
would be to upgrade, and I make no guarantee that my code won't
trash your backups.  (In particular, there's one way that it could --
if any of those commands reads from stdin when you're not expecting
it, it will absorb some of the input that should be going to an
output file!)  But anyway, maybe it will make it possible to do
backups until you get the chance to upgrade, which would be valuable...

- Logan

[ Post a follow-up to this message ]

Pom wrote:
quote:

> Dear sir,
>
>   I used Solaris 2.5.1. I used command "tar" below.
>      tar cvf /backup/home.tar /export/home
>
>   I can backup about 10 minutes but can"t finish backup.
> And then it has error messages below.
>
>     tar: write error: Invalid argument
>
>   Please let me know how to solve this problem.
>
>            Thank you very much.
>                regards,
>                  Pom.


As others have pointed out, it looks like you're running into the 2GB limit.
Here's apossible solution:

tar cvf - /export/home | gzip - > /backup/home.tar.gz
or
tar cvf - /export/home | compress - > /backup/home.tar.Z

gzip has slightly better compression than compress but is not part of the
standard 2.5.1 codebase so you might want to grab it from
http://www.sunfreeware.com/ (asuming it's available for 2.5.1...otherwise
it's either "compress" or compile gzip from source).

HTH.

Cheers,

--James
__________________________________
A random quote of nothing:

Department chairmen never die, they just lose their faculties.

[ Post a follow-up to this message ]

Not just really, really close, I'd say. Considering the amount of bytes
beeing backed up (2339697Kbytes or 2395849728bytes > 2^31!)then it is
clear that he has the problem of file size limitation. The fact that it
stops 2048 bytes short of the maximum allowed is due to the tar command
and the buffering (it uses buffers >= 2Kbytes) so the last buffer cannot
be written before the 2G limit is crossed.
With 2.5.1 Logan will have to find another solution.

Robert

Logan Shaw <lshaw-usenet@austin.rr.com> wrote:
quote:

> Pom wrote: 
>
> That's really, really close to the largest file you can have that
> uses 32-bit offsets:
>
>          $ echo '2^31 - 2147481600' | bc -l
>          2048
>          $
>
> I would say it's highly likely you're running into that issue.
>
> Unfortunately, you are running 2.5.1, which is something like 6 or 7
> years old.  I can't recall whether it has support for 64-bit files
> (large files).  Here are some things you could try:
>
> (1)  "man mount_ufs" and see if describes a "largefiles" mount option.
>       If so, remount with that option.  You can add it to /etc/vfstab,
>       or do "mount" to see the current options, then do
>       "mount -o remount,largefiles,(otheroptions) /backup" to
>       remount it with large files.
>
> (2)  In case tar isn't largefile aware but the shell is, you could
>       try this command instead:
>
>           tar cf - export/home > /backup/home.tar
>
>       If this works, it will be because it has the shell open the
>       file (and pass the special flags to open() to allow large
>       files) and then allows tar to write to standard output as
>       if it's a stream, in which case size doesn't matter.
>
> Of course, #2 requires that you have mounted your filesystem
> so that it can handle large files.
>
> If neither of those works, you could of course upgrade.  Or,
> another way of dealing with backups would be to write the
> backup to several smaller files.  Here's a little shell script
> I call "breakup" that will let you do that:
>
>          #! /bin/sh
>
>          prefix="$1"
>          piece=0
>          filename="$prefix"."$piece"
>          filelist="$prefix".list 
>
>          while :
>          do
>              echo 1>&2 "writing to '$filename'"
>              dd obs=128k count=8192 of="$filename"
>              if [ `ls -l "$filename" | awk '{print $5}'` -eq 0 ]
>              then
>                  rm "$filename"
>                  break
>              fi
>              echo "$filename" >> "$filelist"
>
>              piece=`expr $piece + 1`
>              filename="$prefix"."$piece"
>          done
>
> All you'd have to do is something like this:
>
>          cd / && tar cf - export/home | breakup /backup/home.tar
>
> This should create /backup/home.tar.0 up through /backup/home.tar.1,
> each with as size of 1 GB or less.  You can then use "cat" to put
> them back together again, or at least I think you can.  (Presumably
> "cat" can handle several separate 1 GB files when writing to stdout.)
> Anyway, the command should look like this:
>
>          cat `cat /backup/home.tar.list` | tar tvf -
>
> Naturally, this is not something I've tried before.  The best solution
> would be to upgrade, and I make no guarantee that my code won't
> trash your backups.  (In particular, there's one way that it could --
> if any of those commands reads from stdin when you're not expecting
> it, it will absorb some of the input that should be going to an
> output file!)  But anyway, maybe it will make it possible to do
> backups until you get the chance to upgrade, which would be valuable...
>
>    - Logan
>


--
Departement Informatik             tel  +41 (0)61 267 14 66
Universitaet Basel                 fax. +41 (0)61 267 14 61
Robert Frank
Klingelbergstrasse 50   Robert.Frank@unibas.ch (NeXT,MIME mail ok)
CH-4056 Basel           (remove any no_spam_ from my return address)
Switzerland             [url]http://www.informatik.unibas.ch/personen/frank_r.html[/url
]

[ Post a follow-up to this message ]

In article <nsrhb.9746$X66.3506@twister.austin.rr.com>,
Logan Shaw  <lshaw-usenet@austin.rr.com> wrote:
quote:

>Pom wrote: 
>
>That's really, really close to the largest file you can have that
>uses 32-bit offsets:
>
>         $ echo '2^31 - 2147481600' | bc -l
>         2048
>         $
>
>I would say it's highly likely you're running into that issue.
>
>Unfortunately, you are running 2.5.1, which is something like 6 or 7
>years old.  I can't recall whether it has support for 64-bit files


Large file support has ben aded with 2.6

If he cannot upgrade to a recent OS release, he should wait 'till monday
and use star-1.5a30:

star -cPM -dump -multivol tsize=2000m f=/ba/1.tar f=/ba/2.tar ... -C /export
/home .

... == add enough file arguments so the sum will be > the size of the FS
to backup.

If you add also "new-volume-script=/bin/true", then there will be no
"tape change" prompt.


star-1.5a30 will add reliable multi-volume support with split files.
star releases before 1.5a30 could be used in the same environment with:

star -cPM -dump tsize=2000m f=/ba/1.tar f=/ba/2.tar ... -C /export/home .

(no -multivol). Then the archive "n" will be terminated if the next file
wwon't fit in the "tape size" and archive "n+1" will be used.
The only problem with this method is that you cannot forsee how many
f= parameters will be needed.

--
EMail:joerg@schily.isdn.cs.tu-berlin.de (home) Jörg Schilling D-13353 Berlin
js@cs.tu-berlin.de		(uni)  If you don't have iso-8859-1
schilling@fokus.fraunhofer.de	(work) chars I am J"org Schilling
URL:  http://www.fokus.fraunhofer.de/usr/schilling ftp://ftp.berlios.de/pub/schily

[ Post a follow-up to this message ]

In our last episode, the evil Dr. Lacto had captured our hero,
pom2001@my-deja.com (Pom), who said:
quote:

> Brad said: 
[QUOTE] 
[QUOTE]
># ls -l /backup/home.tar
>-rw-------   1 root     other    2147481600 Oct 10 10:56 /backup/home.tar


2 * 1024 * 1024 * 1024
2147483648

Break up your data into smaller chunks and tar them up separately.
Also, I recommend against using absolute paths in tar.

cd /export/home
for i in * ; do tar cfv /backup/home$i.tar $i ; done

hymie!          http://www.smart.net/~hymowitz          [email]hymie@lactose.smart.net[/ema
il]
 ========================================
====================================
===

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