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What is the best workaround to the problem with tar not liking long filenames?

JL

johnleslie@madasafish.com (John Leslie) wrote in message news:<4412dd31.0405062353.425584d7@posting.google. com>...
> What is the best workaround to the problem with tar not liking long filenames?
>
> JL

Have you tried GNU tar?

Aaron

tar has two buffers for filenames.
- One for directory name.
- One for the file name.
The normal way of workking is having direcrory name in buffer #1,
and file name in buffer #2.

However, if the complete file name (directory + file) can fit in
in the two buffer with a different split scheme (partial directory
name in buffer #1 and partial directory + filename in buffer #2),
then the name will be accepted.
If you are unlucky ( the plit point is at a "/" position), then
tar will reject the file name as being too long.

The best workaround is to go as down is the directory tree
as you can, then do the backup at that position. Forget absolutes
names, and remind the directory name you started from.

Regards,
Stephane

John Leslie a écrit:
>
> What is the best workaround to the problem with tar not liking long filenames?
>
> JL

"John Leslie" <johnleslie@madasafish.com> wrote in message
news:4412dd31.0405062353.425584d7@posting.google.c om...
> What is the best workaround to the problem with tar not liking long
filenames?

Try pax instead. It will write tar archives, and does a better job of many
things than tar does. Or use backup/restore if you don't really need it in
tar format.

I think the replacement is the pax utility. tar has known limitations in path
length names.

-MT

On Fri, 7 May 2004, John Leslie wrote:

JL > Date: 7 May 2004 00:53:38 -0700
JL > From: John Leslie <johnleslie@madasafish.com>
JL > Newsgroups: comp.unix.aix
JL > Subject: tar : name too long
JL >
JL > What is the best workaround to the problem with tar not liking long filenames?
JL >
JL > JL
JL >

There is a major problem with pax under AIX : if you are not root
and you want to restore a tree structure, you NEED to be owner of all
intermediate directories, otherwise pax will end with a non-zero
retrun code EVEN IF all data files have been correctly restored.

This prevents us to use pax in developments systems (with many users
sharing directory trees.

Stephane

Michael E. Thomadakis a écrit:
>
> I think the replacement is the pax utility. tar has known limitations in path
> length names.
>
> -MT
>
> On Fri, 7 May 2004, John Leslie wrote:
>
> JL > Date: 7 May 2004 00:53:38 -0700
> JL > From: John Leslie <johnleslie@madasafish.com>
> JL > Newsgroups: comp.unix.aix
> JL > Subject: tar : name too long
> JL >
> JL > What is the best workaround to the problem with tar not liking long filenames?
> JL >
> JL > JL
> JL >

This is interesting. I've never used pax with files not belonging to me. Is
this the intented pax mode of operation or some AIX specific aberation? Which
version of AIX this refers to?

Another claimed pax advantage is long file support (> 2GB). Is this also not
true under AIX?

On Tue, 11 May 2004, Stephane Gassies wrote:

SG > Date: Tue, 11 May 2004 21:52:57 +0200
SG > From: Stephane Gassies <sgassies@club-internet.fr>
SG > Newsgroups: comp.unix.aix
SG > Subject: Re: tar : name too long
SG >
SG > There is a major problem with pax under AIX : if you are not root
SG > and you want to restore a tree structure, you NEED to be owner of all
SG > intermediate directories, otherwise pax will end with a non-zero
SG > retrun code EVEN IF all data files have been correctly restored.
SG >
SG > This prevents us to use pax in developments systems (with many users
SG > sharing directory trees.
SG >
SG > Stephane
SG >
SG > Michael E. Thomadakis a écrit:
SG > >
SG > > I think the replacement is the pax utility. tar has known limitations in path
SG > > length names.
SG > >
SG > > -MT
SG > >
SG > > On Fri, 7 May 2004, John Leslie wrote:
SG > >
SG > > JL > Date: 7 May 2004 00:53:38 -0700
SG > > JL > From: John Leslie <johnleslie@madasafish.com>
SG > > JL > Newsgroups: comp.unix.aix
SG > > JL > Subject: tar : name too long
SG > > JL >
SG > > JL > What is the best workaround to the problem with tar not liking long filenames?
SG > > JL >
SG > > JL > JL
SG > > JL >
SG >

We got the "directory ownership" problem with AIX 4.3.3 and 5.2.
I Gess this comes from AIX (where only root can do a chown).

PAX works also for big files (> 2 Gb), but tar also (8 Gb), tested
for tar under AIX 4.3.3 (differents maintenance levels) and 5.2.

Michael E. Thomadakis wrote:
>
> This is interesting. I've never used pax with files not belonging to me. Is
> this the intented pax mode of operation or some AIX specific aberation? Which
> version of AIX this refers to?
>
> Another claimed pax advantage is long file support (> 2GB). Is this also not
> true under AIX?
>
[Original POST deleted from answer].