Re: [Duplicity-talk] Backup to tape?

[Ben Escoto]

>>>>> "Bob" == daacyy302  <Bob>
>>>>> wrote the following on 21 Apr 2003 22:18:36 -0700

  Bob> I've been backing up directly to tape by using find to create a
  Bob> tar, then piping it through bzip2 and gpg.  From the looks of
  Bob> it, duplicity is a better solution.

It certainly seems possible that some use of the rsync algorthim would
make backing up to tapes more efficient.

  Bob> I can't seem to figure out a way to get duplicity to back up
  Bob> directly to tape as it seems to want a directory as a
  Bob> destination.  I notice that in the backup directory it creates
  Bob> three files: *.sigtar.gpg, *.manifest.gpg, and *.difftar.gpg.
  Bob> I assume only the *.difftar.gpg file is necessary for
  Bob> restoration (is this correct?) so perhaps I could direct
  Bob> duplicity to write the files into /tmp and subsequently copy
  Bob> just the *.difftar.gpg file to /dev/tape.

All the data is in the difftar files, but the manifest file is read
too, because it says which files are in which directory.  Also the
manifest file contains the checksums of the other difftar files, so
their integrity can be verified.

  Bob> Is anyone else backing up to tape using duplicity?  Should we
  Bob> add a feature to duplicity so that file:///dev/tape can be
  Bob> specified as a destination?

That sounds in principle like a good idea, and duplicity doesn't
really need much from its backends.  I don't have a tape drive, and
don't know much about tape though, so there may be some hidden
complications.


-- 
Ben Escoto

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