Before you can copy files or file systems to diskette, you must format the diskette. See Chapter 13, Formatting and Using Diskettes From the Command Line (Tasks)for information on how to format a diskette.
Use the tar command to copy UFS files to a single formatted diskette.
Use the cpio command if you need to copy UFS files to multiple formatted diskettes. cpio recognizes end-of-media and prompts you to insert the next volume.
Using the cpio command to copy UFS files to multiple formatted diskettes is not a straightforward procedure because of Volume Management.
Use double-sided high-density 3.5-inch diskettes (diskettes are marked "DS, HD").
If the diskette contains a mounted file system, you must unmount the file system before running tar. You can unmount the file system using the umount command, or you can unmount the file system and format the diskette using the fdformat -U command.
Copying files to a formatted diskette using the -c option of tar destroys any files already on the diskette.
Reformatting a diskette destroys any files or archives that were already on the diskette.
Change to the directory that contains the files you want to copy.
Insert a formatted diskette that is not write-protected into the drive.
Make the diskette available using the volcheck command.
Unmount any file system on the diskette and reformat it.
$ fdformat -U/vol/dev/aliases/floppy0 |
Copy the files to diskette using the tar command.
$ tar cvf /vol/dev/rdiskette0/unlabeled filename ... |
The file names you specify are copied to the diskette, overwriting any existing files on the diskette.
Verify that the files copied are on the diskette using the tar command with the -t option, which displays the diskette's contents. See "How to List the Files on a Diskette (tar)" for more information on listing files.
$ tar tvf /vol/dev/rdiskette0/unlabeled |
Remove the diskette from the drive.
Write the names of the files on the diskette label.
In this example, two files are copied to a diskette:
$ cd /home/smith $ ls evaluation* evaluation.doc evaluation.doc.backup $ tar cvf /vol/dev/rdiskette0/unlabeled evaluation* a evaluation.doc 86 blocks a evaluation.doc.backup 84 blocks $ tar tvf /vol/dev/rdiskette0/unlabeled |
Insert a diskette into the drive.
Run volcheck to make the diskette available.
Use the tar command to list the files on a diskette.
$ tar tvf /vol/dev/rdiskette0/unlabeled |
In this example, the table of contents for the diskette shows two files:
$ tar tvf /vol/dev/rdiskette0/unlabeled rw-rw-rw-6693/10 44032 Oct 23 14:54 1996 evaluation.doc rw-rw-rw-6693/10 43008 Oct 23 14:47 1996 evaluation.doc.backup $ |
See tar(1) for more information.
If you need a multiple-volume interchange utility, use the cpio command. The tar command is only a single-volume utility.
Change to the directory where you want to put the files.
Insert the diskette into the drive.
Run volcheck to make the diskette available.
Use the tar command to retrieve files from a diskette.
$ tar xvf /vol/dev/rdiskette0/unlabeled |
All of the files on the diskette are copied to the current directory.
Verify the files have been retrieved by listing the contents of the current directory.
$ ls -l |
Remove the diskette from the drive.
In this example, all files are copied from the diskette:
$ /home/smith/Evaluations $ tar xvf /vol/dev/rdiskette0/unlabeled x evaluation.doc, 44032 bytes, 86 tape blocks x evaluation.doc.backup, 43008 bytes, 84 tape blocks $ ls -l |
Use the tar command to retrieve individual files from a diskette.
$ tar xvf /vol/dev/rdiskette0/unlabeled filename ... |
The file names you specify are extracted from the diskette and placed in the current working directory.
If you are copying large files or file systems onto diskettes, you want to be prompted to replace a full diskette with another formatted diskette. The cpio command provides this capability. The cpio commands you use are the same as you would use to copy files to tape, except you would specify /vol/dev/aliases/floppy0 as the device instead of the tape device name. See "How to Copy All Files in a Directory to a Tape (cpio)" for information on how to use cpio.