Hello all,
today I've been sitting at work and upgrading a very-very-very old server with RedHat Linux 6.2 installed up to CentOS 3.8. The process went smoothly, as it is not the first time I was doing the things like this. Just after upgrading I went to rpm -qai list and got an interesting observation: there are at least two "tar" utilities installed on the system.
One is tar, and second is star.
[root@devel mrtg]# rpm -qi star Name : star Relocations: (not relocatable) Version : 1.5a08 Vendor: CentOS Release : 4 Build Date: Вск 29 Фев 2004 04:54:14 Install Date: Пнд 13 Ноя 2006 09:38:38 Build Host: centos3.wellhouse Group : Applications/Archiving Source RPM: star-1.5a08-4.src.rpm Size : 336744 License: GPL Signature : DSA/SHA1, Втр 16 Мар 2004 01:48:38, Key ID 7049e44d025e513b URL : http://www.fokus.gmd.de/research/cc/glone/employees/joerg.schilling/private/... Summary : An archiving tool with ACL support Description : Star saves many files together into a single tape or disk archive, and can restore individual files from the archive. Star supports ACL.
[root@devel mrtg]# rpm -qi tar Name : tar Relocations: (not relocatable) Version : 1.14 Vendor: CentOS Release : 4 Build Date: Пнд 21 Фев 2005 18:58:37 Install Date: Срд 05 Апр 2006 19:48:51 Build Host: bhrama.build.karan.org Group : Applications/Archiving Source RPM: tar-1.14-4.src.rpm Size : 824393 License: GPL Signature : DSA/SHA1, Вск 27 Фев 2005 00:39:26, Key ID a53d0bab443e1821 Packager : Karanbir Singh kbsingh@centos.org URL : http://www.gnu.org/software/tar/ Summary : A GNU file archiving program. Description : The GNU tar program saves many files together in one archive and can restore individual files (or all of the files) from that archive. Tar can also be used to add supplemental files to an archive and to update or list files in the archive. Tar includes multivolume support, automatic archive compression/decompression, the ability to perform remote archives, and the ability to perform incremental and full backups.
If you want to use tar for remote backups, you also need to install the rmt package.
I would like to know, what are the differences between them? Which one should I use in the future? Is star compatible with amanda backup suite (I use amanda as a main backup software solution for our production environment servers)?
Also, there may be other tar-like/compatible utilities shipped with CentOS3/4 that I simply don't know about. It would be great, if somebody will provide me with info (or a link to a place) about such utilities, and with a comparison between them all. Thanks in advance.
On 11/15/06, Alexey Loukianov aloukianov@lavtech.ru wrote:
Hello all,
today I've been sitting at work and upgrading a very-very-very old server with RedHat Linux 6.2 installed up to CentOS 3.8. The process went smoothly, as it is not the first time I was doing the things like this. Just after upgrading I went to rpm -qai list and got an interesting observation: there are at least two "tar" utilities installed on the system.
One is tar, and second is star.
Tar is the one you'll likely run into the most. Star is similar to tar, but has ACL support, so if you're using extended ACL support (requires a mount option to the file system) you get to keep all the fine grained permissions. This applies to about 1% of the user population*.
* This statistic was yanked directly from the southern orifice and should not in any way be considered accurate
Mostly, learn tar first as it is what nearly everything uses and expects.
<snip> > One is tar, and second is star.
Tar is the one you'll likely run into the most. Star is similar to tar, but has ACL support, so if you're using extended ACL support (requires a mount option to the file system) you get to keep all the fine grained permissions. This applies to about 1% of the user population*.
- This statistic was yanked directly from the southern orifice and
should not in any way be considered accurate
I have a bunch of Samba servers that need the ACL option to simulate a Windows server behaviour but i still use Tar for the backups. I just save my ACL with getfacl in a file prior to the tar itself. In such case i know that i'll be able to restore both file and ACLs even on a system that has only tar and not star ....
****************************************** * Fabian Arrotin - http://www.arrfab.net * ******************************************
On Wed, 2006-11-15 at 18:23, Alexey Loukianov wrote:
I would like to know, what are the differences between them? Which one should I use in the future? Is star compatible with amanda backup suite (I use amanda as a main backup software solution for our production environment servers)?
Amanda needs the --listed-incremental mode of GNU tar. Star has some different extensions but won't work with amanda.
-
Alexey Loukianov -
Fabian Arrotin -
Jim Perrin -
Les Mikesell