Multiple Floopies copy?

[Alan Jackson]

On Wed, 3 Apr 2002 15:20:13 -0300 (ART)  =?iso-8859-1?q?Cidad=E3o=20Dorense?= wrote:
> Hi all!
> 
> I need to put a 2.8 MB file into two floppies for a
> non-networked machine.
> 
> Any ideas on how to split the file?

There is actually an SxS on that...


-------------- next part --------------
Sneakernet Step by Step
or How to Move Files Using Floppy Disks

Alan Jackson, alan at ajackson.org, July 2001.

Yes, even in this day of networks, CDRW drives, zip drives, and more,
the lowly 3 1/4 inch floppy still has it's place. Everyone has one,
and it usually works! So how can you best make use of your floppy drives
when transferring files? Here are few tricks and tips...

- tar is your friend. tar will preserve a whole directory structure 
painlessly, so take advantage of it.

- tar also had floppy-friendly options, like allowing a single file to span
multiple floppy disks.

Here is a process I came up with for transferring lots of files between
machines on floppies.

1. Create a list of files to be moved :

ls -als * > foo
edit foo, put an '=' in front of every file *not* to move.

du --total `grep -v = foo | awk '{print $10}'`
This will tell you how many kbytes of files you have selected
Expect about 1440 kb per floppy.

grep -v = foo | awk '{print $10}' > foo1
This will create a new file of the selected ones

Create a list of files that are newer than a particular file (I used this
after I had transferred a bunch of stuff, and then a week later needed to find
all the stuff that had changed and move it).

find . -newer files_5_26_2001_e ! -type d  -fprint changed_files

and then to make a tarball,

tar -cMpvf /dev/fd0 --files-from changed_files

2.  Create a tar file from a list of files :

tar -cMpzvf a_tarfile.gz --files-from foo1
This command also zips the tarfile to shrink it.

3.  Copy a list of files to a set of floppies

tar -cMpvf /dev/fd0 --files-from foo1

or create a zipped tarball first, and copy that onto multiple floppies :

copy onto diskette
tar -cMvpf /dev/fd0 chunk_j.gz

4. Copy off a set of floppies onto a new system

copy off of diskette
tar -xMpf /dev/fd0 

------------------------------

The tar options used are :

x = extract
c = create

M = multiple floppies
p = preserve times
v = verbose
f = filename (this parameter must be last)


Enjoy!