On Wed, Aug 24, 2005 at 02:59:03PM -0400, Jean-Francois Malouin wrote:
> Hi,
> 
> In the last few days I've been getting this error:
> 
>     [/usr/freeware/bin/tar returned 2]

Return code (exit status) 2 seems, I think, to be reserved by tar
for non-fatal situations from which it can continue doing its archive.
Gnutar reports the file caused problems and sets a flag that causes
an exit status of 2 when it gets to the normal end point.

...
> sendsize[133766]: time 9395.075: /usr/freeware/bin/tar: ./dev/fd: Cannot 
> savedir: Function not implemented
> sendsize[133766]: time 9458.503: /usr/freeware/bin/tar: ./dev/fd: Warning: 
> Cannot savedir: Function not implemented
> sendsize[133766]: time 9477.462: /usr/freeware/bin/tar: ./dev/entropy: socket 
> ignored
> sendsize[133766]: time 9479.274: /usr/freeware/bin/tar: ./opt/prngd/egd-pool: 
> socket ignored
> sendsize[133766]: time 9550.026: /usr/freeware/bin/tar: 
> ./var/spool/pbs/server_priv/jobs/70085.shado.JB: Warning: Cannot stat: No 
> such file or directory
> sendsize[133766]: time 9550.034: /usr/freeware/bin/tar: 
> ./var/spool/pbs/server_priv/jobs/70085.shado.SC: Warning: Cannot stat: No 
> such file or directory
> sendsize[133766]: time 9551.503: Total bytes written: 3056629760 (2.8GB, 
> 18MB/s)
> sendsize[133766]: time 9551.510: /usr/freeware/bin/tar: Error exit delayed 
> from previous errors
> sendsize[133766]: time 9551.510: .....
...
> 
> 
> Any clue?


Looks to me like:

Some devices, sockets and whatever fd is (file descriptor, floppy disk, ???) 
could not
be handled by tar and two temporary spool files existed when tar looked at the 
directory
listing but had already disappeared when tar tried to get their size, 
ownership, ...

Maybe some exclude's are needed?

-- 
Jon H. LaBadie                  jon AT jgcomp DOT com
 JG Computing
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 Princeton, NJ  08540-4322      (609) 683-7220 (fax)