tar
Used to backup/restore files to a tape drive. Tar can be used to archive a group of files into another file or more commonly to write/restore a group of files to a tape drive.
| Options | Description |
|---|---|
| c | create a archive (write to tape) |
| t | display files on archive (view only) |
| x | extract from archive (read from tape and write to disk) |
| v | verbose – display filenames |
| z | compress files (using gzip) |
| f | device name or file name to write to |
| directory or file | directory or file to use |
Note: The following examples assume the device name of your tape drive is /dev/st0.
| Command | What it does |
|---|---|
| tar cvf /dev/st0 / | backup the entire system to tape |
| tar cvzf /dev/st0 /bin | only backup the /bin directory to tape and compress |
| tar tvf /dev/st0 | view the contents of a tape |
| tar xvf /dev/st0 | restore the entire contents of the tape |
| tar xvf /dev/st0 /etc/sendmail.cf | only restore the file ‘/etc/sendmail.cf’ from tape |
| tar xvzf /dev/st0 /bin | restore and uncompress the directory /bin from tape |
mt
The mt command can be used to erase, retension or to set compression mode.
Note: The following examples assume the device name of your tape drive is /dev/st0.
| Command | What it does |
|---|---|
| /usr/sbin/mt -f /dev/st0 retension | Retension |
| /usr/sbin/mt -f /dev/st0 erase | Erase |
| /usr/sbin/mt -f /dev/st0 datcompression | Turn compress on |