massive tar file, can't untar
 

hi all

i am trying to tar up my web server directory
which ends up being around 13GB

using ssh
but when i try to untar it on another server
it takes up heaps of cpu and memory
and then eventually the ssh connection drops out
and the tar just quits

is there anyway i can get around this?
like tar into several archives and then merge them on untar

thanks
dave

I'm not expert in TAR, but I would generally avoid handling anything in bites that big. Too many different issues can get you.

What's the downside of moving 3-4 "tarballs" rather than 1?

hey, thanks for your reply
that's what i'm asking
is it possible to run something like
tar -cf -split 500MB file%d.tar

and end up with like file01.tar, file02.tar, file03.tar, file04.tar
then use something like tar xf -join file01.tar file02.tar file03.tar file04.tar

to join them all back together untarred

Hi...

Sorry to resurrect such an old thread....

maybe the problem is that ssh can't cope with such a big memory allocation. So, how about doing that not inside ssh? maybe programs like dtach, screen, or tmux could help here.