[BackupPC-users] Problems restoring a multi-volume backup created with the archive function

[Alexander P. <a.h...@gm...>]

Hello,=20

First of all I am new to this list and to backuppc. I am using Debian
Sarge (backuppc version 1.2.1).
I have created a backup of localhost including /etc and /home with the
following command:

from localhost.pl:

$Conf{TarClientCmd} =3D '/usr/bin/sudo $tarPath -c -v -f - -C $shareName+'
                    . ' --totals';

the user backuppc of course has an entry in /etc/sudoers to be able to
execute /bin/tar as root .

After creating the full backup I have done an backup of the hole host
with the archive function. The resulting archive was about 700 MB in
size and spanned over two files with 650 MB per file without
compression:

$ ls /tmp
localhost.0.tar.raw.aa
localhost.0.tar.raw.ab

Then tar was used to test and review the archive:

$ tar tvMf localhost.0.tar.raw.aa

The first volume processed fine and reported:

tar: Read 5760 bytes from localhost.0.tar.raw.aa
Prepare volume #2 for `localhost.0.tar.raw.aa' and hit return:

So I hit return and got the following error messages:

tar: '#######' is not continued on this volume
Prepare volume #2 for `localhost.0.tar.raw.aa' and hit return:

so I aborted and run the following command:

tar tvMf localhost.0.tar.raw.ab (either with or without the -M option)

with the following errors:

tar: This does not look like a tar archive
tar: Skipping to next header
tar: Archive contains obsolescent base-64 headers
tar: Error exit delayed from previous errors

The man page of tar says that each volume should be an intact tar
archive itself, where all none spaned files can still be accessed.
Does anybody see the mistake in my restoring commands?
Without getting this issue resolved I will never be able to restore
any backups created with the archive function. My plan is also to burn
the volumes on CDR and make the restore directly from the CD's.

Thanks for any help.

Alexander Pohl
(The University of Reading)