DVD backup [was:] [lug] Robust storage

[Dean Brissinger]

On Sun, 2005-05-01 at 22:07 +0200, rm at fabula.de wrote:

> On the slightly related topic of DVD backups: i just got a DVD burner
> installed into my box and want to use it as a backup medium for my
> development stuff. All the GUI tools i know will attempt to create
> a mirror of the filesystem tree before even creating the ISO image -
> that won't work since sometimes there isn't enough space left on the
> /tmp devices.
> Any program (pref. a console app :-) that can backup a file system tree
> to a DVD _without_ creating an mirror (maybe even without creating an ISO)?

Amanda can do this using it's "disk-based" backups.  Once you have a
directory you want to image just 'mkisofs [options] | cdrecord -'

Or, with a more complex use of pipes you can backup your files with tar
and get them to the CD all in memory:

	% star -c [files] | mkisofs -stream-media-size 333000 | \
		cdrecord dev=b,t,l -dao tsize=333000s -

Read the man pages for mkisofs and cdrecord for details about what this
is doing.  The media size will be different for your DVD than my example
above (using the size of a CD).  It depends which DVD format you choose.
The number is the maximum size--in sectors--of the ISO image (with
padding).  It must be 200 sectors less than the specified media size.  I
believe 'tar -cf - [files]' may work too.

If you get that working you can also try piping output from dump or dd.
star is the recommended tool by the mkisofs authors.