Problems with CPIO

[darmbrust]

The MAN page for CPIO states

-O file [, file ...]

You can perform an unattended multi-archive backup if you specify a comma-separated list of files.

I can not seem to get this to work. It fills the first file and then states:

cpio: can't read input: end of file encountered prior to expected end of archive.

Can anyone advise how to make this work?

 

[patw]

You've misread the docs. the list of files is whitespace separated, not commas.

But, most people use pipes to get a list of files to cpio:

cd <somedir>
find . -print | cpio -ovc -O/dev/<your tape dev> -M&quot;change the tape now &quot;

or, use vi to list the files you want to &quot;afilelist&quot; with a return after each, then:

cat afilelist | cpio etc etc

But for full system backups and emergency recovery don't bother with cpio - get one of the 'supertars', Backup Edge (

http://www.microlite.com)

or Lone-Tar (

http://www.cactus.com).

They offer capabilites that cpio does not and make &quot;one-button&quot; disaster recovery childs play.