sparse files

[Roger Oberholtzer]

I have been playing with qemu (worth a look at www.qemu.org), which is a
free vmware.

In using qemu, I have made a sparse disk file on an ext3 file system.
All works swimmingly. The file took no space, but was 6 GB. I installed
XP into the file with no trouble.  The real disk usage reflects what is
really used. All is as expected.

Next I wanted to copy the image to another computer. So, I thought I
would use tar's --sparse option to make a file to copy, and then untar
it and have the sparse file on the other computer. Nope. The untarred
file stops at 2GB. So, I thought I had some file size limit. So, I tried
untaring the archive on the same system with the original 6GB sparse
file. I get the same 2GB reproduction of the originally 6BG sparse file.

Anyone successfully copied a big sparse file from one computer to
another and retain the 'sparseness'? All the things I have read on tar
imply this works, but I don't have such luck.


 
-- 
Roger Oberholtzer <roger at opq.se>