Hi,

just to add an option for the archives ...

Sorin Srbu wrote on 2011-04-13 14:38:29 +0200 [[BackupPC-users] How to restore  
an 8GB archive file?]:
> [...]
> Not initially knowing how big it actually was, using BPC I downloaded it in a
> zipped and uncompressed format to my Windows machine, then transferred the zip
> to her linux machine running 32b CentOS v5.6. [...]
> 
> 1. How would I best deal with really big archives when restoring from BPC and
> 32b linux is involved?

with "really big archives" you want to avoid unnecessary network transfers and
intermediate storage of the files. Try something along the lines of ...

        backuppc-server$ sudo -u backuppc 
/usr/share/backuppc/bin/BackupPC_tarCreate -h host -n dumpNum -s shareName 
/path/to/data/relative/to/share | ssh -l user target-host tar xvpf - -C 
/share/path/on/target

(of course, great minds prefer netcat ;-). You'll have to play around a bit
with that (practise with small amounts of data and piping BackupPC_tarCreate
into 'tar tvf -' instead of ssh to get a feeling for what files you are
selecting and what the paths in the tar stream look like).
Some things to consider:
- Which user on the target host do you need to connect as? Perhaps root?
- Are you restoring in-place or do you need to change paths? Consider using
  the '-r' and '-p' options to BackupPC_tarCreate or restore to a temporary
  location - preferably on the correct partition - and move the target
  directory into the correct place manually. Check permissions before moving
  so 'mv' does not, in fact, start copying things.
- Does "sudo -u backuppc" work for you or do you need to become the backuppc
  user in a different way?
- Where is your BackupPC_tarCreate? I've used the Debian package path, but
  that's not the standard ...
- I just added a tar 'v' option, because you should probably see what you are
  doing until it has become routine, and perhaps even then ...

> 2. Wouldn't a zip-split function be a nice thing to have in BPC when restoring
> data? This is a hint to the BPC-author. 8-)

Personally, I wouldn't use the web interface for downloading large amounts of
data anyway. On the command line, your imagination is the limit to what you
can do. If it's not available as a filter yet, "the BPC-author" would likely
need to implement the functionality. A generic tar2zipsplit filter would be
more useful to the world than a specific implementation inside BackupPC, don't
you think?

Regards,
Holger

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