multi-volume archives

[Steve O'Hara-Smith]

On Sun, 22 Sep 2019 01:25:58 +0700
Victor Sudakov <vas at mpeks.tomsk.su> wrote:

> Steve O'Hara-Smith wrote:
> > > 
> > > Which is now the most convenient way to create multi-volume archives?
> > > To fit an archive on a FAT32 flash drive, a volume size should not
> > > exceed 4g. 
> > 
> > 	Gnu tar (in ports/packages as gtar) has support for multi-volume
> > splitting (-M) which by default prompts for the next volume to be
> > installed (so you could write direct to the flash drive) or can use a
> > script to generate the next volume filename. I vaguely recall using it
> > a long time ago.
> 
> I'm even old enough to remember that BSD tar could do the same, and I
> used this feature with magnetic tapes, but after the introduction of
> libarchive, the BSD tar lost this ability.

	Indeed.

> However, this understanding of multiple volumes is not convenient for
> writing to a formatted flash drive.

	You can use -L <size> and perhaps the --new-volume-script option and
a script to make it convenient for most purposes, but the default prompt for
a new volume approach should work fine - when you get the prompt unmount the
drive and mount another one in the same place hit return and away you go.

-- 
Steve O'Hara-Smith <steve at sohara.org>