On Wed, 5 Nov 2003 04:52:33 -0800
David Wolfskill <david AT egation DOT com> wrote:
> On Wed, Nov 05, 2003 at 10:26:37AM +0100, JC Simonetti wrote:
> > [...]
> > > But in the testing so far, we're finding some odd results:
>
> > > * The actual program that the Win32 client uses to do the backups
> > > appears to be an NT port of tar. But trying to restore a file
> > > made from that backup on a FreeBSD system generates a message saying
> > > that the file does not look like a tar archive.
>
> > Sure... It's a Win32 tar archive...
>
> I wasn't aware that the Win32 environment was sufficiently "special"
> that tar archives were unportable between that and normal (UNIX)
> environments.
It's the reason of the existence of the WinTar software :)
>
> > A tar archive includes: data of the file and data related to the file:
> > name, rights... And rights are completely different between *nix and
> > Windows...
>
> OK; I'll take your word for it.
>
> > Take your tar on a Windows box and untar it: it will be successful.
>
> Well, I suppose it might be, if it were small enough to fit in the
> available space on the Windows box, and if someone who had a clue about
> the Windows environment (i.e., not me) did it. But it's a (Win32) tar
> archive for the entire "C:" drive.
Whoops... Try a smaller tar to make your tests...
>
> > > Also, "ls" showed each directory twice -- once as a directory; once as
> > > a regular file.
>
> > Which ls? In amrecover?
>
> Yes.
>
> > > * Trying to use the "amrestore" on the Win32 side, the "ls" command
> > > doesn't seem to work.
>
> > amrestore or amrecover? amrestore just dd's out the tape and, if you want,
> > make a grep on the output. There's no ls...
>
> Right; sorry: I screwed up. I meant "amrecover".
I did not use amrecover for my restorations, but just amrestore. Why? Because
in my backup architecture, I d not want to restore to data directly on the
client but I restore them on the backup server then push them on the client.
And as WinTar and GnuTar are different, I was just able to extract the dd image
from the tape with amrestore and push these data on the Win32 server, and over
there untar them.
But I was backing up small data, something les than 5 Gb, so I was able to have
on my Windows box the tar and the untar data simultaneously, right :)
>
> > > At some point, I would like my employer to contribute some resources
> > > toward making this version of the amanda client solid enough to install
> > > from the directions and run. This may include paying someone to
> > > implement "selfcheck," for example, as well as other parts of the Win32
> > > client that need attention. Speaking only for myself, I would be less
> > > interested in a GUI for any of this, but that's just me.
>
> > When I tested the Win32 client, I needed a selfcheck. This was for
> > production systems, not workstations (so you may find my solution not
> > useful). My selfcheck was something like:
> > int main() {
> > return 0;
> > }
>
> That's fine (and resembles /usr/src/usr.bin/true/true.c, without
> the BSD copyright that the version I use has), but I have no Win32
> development environment. At the rate things are going, we're looking
> for some help in doing some work in such an environment so we can
> create executables that will actually work; I have no reason to
> believe that a physical presence here (in Fremont, California) is
> especially necessary.
Concerning development on Win32 architectures, you have Dev-C++
(http://sourceforge.net/projects/dev-cpp/) : a free software IDE compiler under
Windows.
Personally I don't like the Win32 client since it is based on a CVS snapshot of
Amanda from august 2001 : so old isn't it?!
Maybe a future development of this client should only be libraries to interface
the *nix version of Amanda under Win32, maybe real libraries or patches to
apply on the sources, but something that would be generic and not applied on a
particular version and just on this version.
The 2 other solutions are :
1. Samba backup using "smbclient" on the Linux Amanda server: simple but you
do not backup NT file rights (well... see some messages above in the
mailing-list, someone sent a little script to backup the rights)
2. Cygwin and the Amanda source code: very functional but you have to install a
Linux emulator on your Windows box... I don't like the idea (what would you say
if I told you that you have to install a Windows emulator on your BSD to backup
your BSD?)
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