What's The Limit

[Mikkel L. Ellertson]

Joe Smith wrote:
> 
> There's no law that says the data on a CD or DVD has to be in a
> particular format (iso or udf, e.g.).
> 
> At least for CDs, I sometimes just skip making an iso containing only
> one big file (my backup.tar.gz) and just use cdrecord to write the tar
> file to the CD instead of a .iso.
> 
> I read them back with something like ``tar -xvzf /dev/cdrom''
> 
> I'm no CD/DVD guru, so this may be something really stupid, but so far
> they've all read back just fine. I don't see any reason it wouldn't work
> with a DVD as well.
> 
> Also, (GNU) tar can create multi-volume archives. Check the -M and -L
> options to create multiple tar file archives of limited size for writing
> to multiple CDs/DVDs.
> 
> <Joe
> 
> 
I can not see any problem with it. After all, tar was originally
used to back up to magnetic tape. The tape does not have a file
system on it. You can also use tar to write to a partition or an
entire hard drive without a file system. But again, you have to use
tar to retrieve the data.

tar - tape archiver

Mikkel
-- 

  Do not meddle in the affairs of dragons,
for thou art crunchy and taste good with Ketchup!