Re: [Dump-users] Listing the content of a dump file without writing any data?

[Keith G. Robertson-T. <dum...@ge...>]

Verily I say unto thee, that Stelian Pop spake thusly:
> On Fri, Jan 04, 2008 at 06:49:06AM -0800, Kenneth Porter wrote:

>> This is one of those use cases where being able to mount the dump 
>> like an ISO9660 filesystem would be handy. ;)
> 
> I'm not sure the sequential nature of a dump is compatible with some
> sort of loop mount... Especially if the dump is located on a real 
> tape :)

That'd make an interesting side project.

What does the layout of a dump file look like, semantically?

Wouldn't it be possible to create a virtual filesystem based on the dump
header, which subsequently calls "restore" when actually working with
files? These would then be temporarily extracted to /tmp ... somewhat
like file-roller or similar?

That way, the actual data would not need to be extracted first, it would
be a much faster operation, use less memory and disk space, and
(assuming the inode info can be retrieved without fully restoring the
entire dump) this would work just as well with tape as a dump file.

I'm thinking along the lines of integration with gnome-vfs or similar.

Something to think about in the long term, anyway.

-- 
Regards,
Keith G. Robertson-Turner