Topic: Backup files and WInZIP

[Serge Dutremble]

I am using the SME backup to only backup various user home directories as separate disk files each day. (Backup to disk, not tape).

The users know that their first level of backup is their home directory (I copy their local stuff there each day) and their second level of backup is the SME backup done at night for their home directory which they open using WinZIP.

The SME backup files are tared and gzipped and show an error when opened using WinZIP.  Files can be extracted but I am not certain if all files could be extracted should WinZIP try.  Also, it takes a long time to open the tar file over the network.

The ZIP utility, which the SME backup could used, is not currently installed on SME.  However, I am not sure if this would fix the problem, when opening with WinZIP.  I know that normal ZIP files opened over a network do not need to be completely downloaded until the content is visible.  I would home this would be similar with the linux ZIP formats.

I KNOW it is not a problem with the SME backup as a restore works fine.  I just want to find out a way the users could restore single files themselves using WinZIP without having to get an error dialog and the long delays.

Also, having WinZIP showing an error on opening the backup file may indicate an update is in order to ensure current ZIP file formats are compatible.

Any ideas?  Past experiences?

Anyone used the ZIP utility on SME before?

Some advice would be appreciated.

Serge

[Steven Curren]

i used the open zip utility to nightly perform backups and wrote the most important files to a CD. I used the zip uitlity in a shell script and wrote them to an i-bay called backups and was able to extract the files using winzip on request...No problems.

[Serge Dutremble]

Which zip utility did you use?

I did not find it in a standard installation of E-Smith or SME.

Serge.

[Robert Boerner]

I think I can add a little to this dicussion. I was testing some recovery options and one was the ability to restore a single email from a users MailDir. The file names given to the individual mail files are not valid file names on a Windows box. Interestingly enough, where WinZip would choke, Power Archiver would work. It would interpret slashes as directory separators (although incorrectly).

It brings up a valid point though. I have yet to find a windows application that could extract a single email from the backup archive that SME creates. Anyone have any other ideas?