tar backup help

When running a command like this:

tar zvcf `date +%G%m%d`-testinc.tar.gz --newer-mtime=datestampfile .

It includes a bunch of empty directories in the archive. I can't find
a switch to tell it to not include directories it won't be putting
anything into. Is there such a thing or do I need to live with this or
use find?

Thanks.

Noah Roberts wrote:
> When running a command like this:
>
> tar zvcf `date +%G%m%d`-testinc.tar.gz --newer-mtime=datestampfile .
>
> It includes a bunch of empty directories in the archive. I can't find
> a switch to tell it to not include directories it won't be putting
> anything into. Is there such a thing or do I need to live with this or
> use find?

I find cpio to be better for this. Try something like:

find / -print | cpio -o | bzip2 --best > /tmp/$HOSTNAME-`date
+%m-%d-%y`.cpio.bz2

If you really want the best compression, you should first create the
archive, then compress it with bzip2 --best.

Hope that helps,

--
Sean

Fao, Sean wrote:
> Noah Roberts wrote:
> > When running a command like this:
> >
> > tar zvcf `date +%G%m%d`-testinc.tar.gz --newer-mtime=datestampfile
..
> >
> > It includes a bunch of empty directories in the archive. I can't
find
> > a switch to tell it to not include directories it won't be putting
> > anything into. Is there such a thing or do I need to live with
this or
> > use find?
>
> I find cpio to be better for this. Try something like:
>
> find / -print

Ok, is there such a thing as an extended version of find that will
accept something like -mnewer=DATE instead of -mnewer=n? I'm thinking
that is a better approach for me rather than datestampfile.

Noah Roberts wrote:

> Ok, is there such a thing as an extended version of find that will
> accept something like -mnewer=DATE instead of -mnewer=n? I'm
thinking
> that is a better approach for me rather than datestampfile.

Nevermind. If I use the -daystart switch I can do what I was after.

Fao, Sean wrote:

> I find cpio to be better for this. Try something like:
>
> find / -print | cpio -o | bzip2 --best > /tmp/$HOSTNAME-`date
> +%m-%d-%y`.cpio.bz2

I get a lot of things like this printed on stderr when I do that:

cpio: usr/share/man/man8/update-pciids.8.gz: truncating inode number
cpio: usr/share/man/man8/pcimodules.8.gz: truncating inode number
cpio: usr/share/misc/pci.ids: truncating inode number

Is that a problem?

> I get a lot of things like this printed on stderr when I do that:
>
> cpio: usr/share/man/man8/update-pciids.8.gz: truncating inode number
> cpio: usr/share/man/man8/pcimodules.8.gz: truncating inode number
> cpio: usr/share/misc/pci.ids: truncating inode number
>
> Is that a problem?

Likely the default is to use an old format that believes inode numbers
are 16 bits or something. Use --format (e.g. --format=newc) to make the
problem go away.

Allen McIntosh wrote:
> > I get a lot of things like this printed on stderr when I do that:
> >
> > cpio: usr/share/man/man8/update-pciids.8.gz: truncating inode
number
> > cpio: usr/share/man/man8/pcimodules.8.gz: truncating inode number
> > cpio: usr/share/misc/pci.ids: truncating inode number
> >
> > Is that a problem?
>
> Likely the default is to use an old format that believes inode
numbers
> are 16 bits or something. Use --format (e.g. --format=newc) to make
the
> problem go away.

Sure enough. -o means copy out and default format for copy out is
'bin' the "obsolete binary format".

Tried and true.

Thanks.