I've just started playing around with CentOS on an old box and thought I'd revisit my backup requirements. Until now I've been using tar, with a brief but not completely successful stint using star.

I've just discovered dar, and as I backup to DVDs, it's ability to produce multiple "slices" to fit across disks is very attractive. What I can't tell from Googling is how well supported/regarded dar is as a product. What I've seen does seem positive though.

Does anyone have much experience with dar, and do you think I am running a risk of having backups that aren't particulalry useful, or is there anything else I should know?


Any thoughts are welcome.


Rgds


Bill

I've been using DAR for about 3 years.

Things I like about DAR:
a) dar archives each file individually. So, if a file is corrupt, you risk only one file, not the entire archive. Tar archives are one large archive. If part of it is corrupt, you loose the entire backup.
b) restore of files is easy. restore one file, a directory, or the entire backup. All equally easy.
c) easy to verify a backup as soon as it's made.
d) easy to list the contents of a backup.
e) dar can include the static version of dar on the media (seperate from the backup) to make restoration easier if the system isn't bootable until restored.
f) many more reasons. these are my top five.

You should also look into the GUI version Kdar.

Try it out. Follow the tutorial and try each operation as listed. When you get to the end, I've no doubt that you will feel assured that DAR will work for you.

Thanks bigrigdriver, I actually saw a post you made on dar a couple of years back (ie I found the post today).

I assume Kdar runs under KDE? I don't run the machines I want to use it on in the gui.

You obviously aren't concerned about dar's longevity or anything of that sort.

Rgds

Bill