How can a generate a tar file that is split into 4.4gb portions that I can burn to dvd's? I have about 80gb of stuff to backup, some files larger than a single dvd can hold.

You need to use the multi-archive flags, and to give it a tape length which is N*1024 bytes

So to split a large archive you can use: ( note 4505600 is a guess it maybe a little smaller size that you need )

tar -c -M -L=4505600 --file=part1.tar largefile.tar.gz

It will stop after creating the first part and ask you:

Prepare volume #2 for part1.tar and hit return:

What you need to do is enter:
n part2.tar

You will then get the prompt
Prepare volume #2 for part2.tar and hit return:

and you can hit return. You can of couse repeat this for as many parts as you want.

Putting the parts back together is a matter of

tar -x -M --file=part1.tar largefile.tar.gz
Prepare volume #2 for part1.tar and hit return: n part2.tar
Prepare volume #2 for part2.tar and hit return:

Try Mondo Rescue. While it may be a bit of overkill if you're just backing up data it's very conveniant - especially having bootable CD's or DVD's with your system files on it.


Håkan

thank you.

leonscape:
Will it autpomatically change the number? or do I need to type "Part#" each time?

You have to type the "n partX.tar" for each piece. You could try this script

split-tar instructions are here, but it can't split big files within the tar's.

all good but 1 prob :-(
the large files I have are not already a tar file. and I only have enogh hd space for the original and the part tars, not enough for original, temporary large tar, and part tars all combined. I need to go directly from the structure to the partial files, no middle-man large tar.

Thats fine just replace largefile.tar.gz with what you want to tar, i.e.

tar -c -M -L=4505600 --file=part1.tar adirectory/ anotherdirectory/

or

tar -c -M -L=4505600 --file=part1.tar filename1 filename2

You can also use the compression stuff like gz or bz2, by using -cz or -cj instead off -c.

I hope it works, what I read in the script made me think it generated the large tar itself that way.

I'd reccomend going about it this way:
tar the directory, then follow this tutorial to split and reassemble the files.

that is exaclt what I need to do, problem is I do not have enough hd space to do it that way:
root@Abydos exodist # df -h
Filesystem Size Used Avail Use% Mounted on
/dev/sda6 27G 3.8G 24G 14% /
/dev/sda1 236M 36M 200M 16% /boot
/dev/sda3 19G 9.1G 9.7G 49% /home
/dev/sda5 27G 33M 27G 1% /lin64
/dev/hde1 115G 29G 86G 26% /stuff
/dev/hdh1 115G 61G 55G 53% /stuff/Video
/dev/hdg1 115G 95G 20G 83% /stuff/Video/Anime1
/dev/hdf1 115G 101G 15G 88% /stuff/Video/Anime2
/dev/hdc1 75G 49G 27G 65% /stuff/Audio

now, I need to do all of /stuff/Audio (it's all legal if anyone asks)
it needs to go to dvd

so I tar it all up, that means it needs to go to a drive large enogh.. this leaves /stuff and /stuff/video w/ enough room

I fill one, then I need to split it, assuming I can split into a different drive than the master tar file I split it onto the other.

now I need to make iso's (btw I want all the stages including iso generating to be part of a perl script I will write)

this is where I had my first problem, wher eis there enough room for them without writing logic to put it where it fits (now that I think fo it thats not hard) but I can remove the master large tar file. and go back to that drive for the iso's.

....hopefully if I need to restore them I will have enough space to restore the .tar AND extract it :-)

thanx for th ehelp everyone, I think I can get something working with this.

just a disclaimer, all my stuff, video, audio, etc. are all legal, the anime's are unliscenced, and inside Video is anime3 taking all the space. as for audio it is mostly obscure j-pop and foreign stuff not liscenced in US. I do not use/traffic in/etc. illegal data

Create the large archive in /stuff
cd /stuff
tar -cvjf stuffaudio.tar.bz2 audio/

Remove the contents of audio
rm -rF audio/

Then split tar
tar -cM -L 4505600 --file=audio/audio1.tar stuffaudio.tar.bz2

Then the n /audio/audio2.tar stuff, or use the split-tar program.