[lug] tar question

[D. Stimits]

Justin wrote:
> 
> I have a small error that I want to get clarified. I was backing up
> some /home directory's on one of my boxes today and got this.
> 
> [root at oldschool 22-March-2001]# tar cpf /home/files/backup/22-March-
> 2001/homedirs-backup-`date '+%d-%B-%Y'`.tar.gz \
> > --directory /home/ --exclude=files --exclude=ftp --exclude=httpd --
> exclude=postfix --exclude=oldaccounts --exclude=lost+found .
> tar: ./glowecon/IrcLog: file changed as we read it
> tar: Error exit delayed from previous errors
> 
> Does this error mean it failed all together? I untarred the archive
> afterwards and that Irclog file got backed up fine. I watched the
> archive keep growing in size too after the "file changed" error came up
> and it was still going thru it's process of backing up all the other
> stuff (file was growing). I also got a error free backup a little after
> this one and the archive sizes of the before and after were almost
> identical in size. This error just makes it seem like it went bad. Am I
> just misreading or misinterpreting this error? TIA.
> 
> Justin
> -----
> glow at jackmoves.com
> www.jackmoves.com

I don't know about the error, but since the file was apparently a log
for IRC, is it possible something was actively writing to the file
during the tar? It looks like you are creating a backup archive and it
is warning you that something got a stale copy; whether that means
complete failure or not I don't know.

D. Stimits, stimits at idcomm.com