path: root/sysutils/afio/pkg-descr

Afio makes cpio-format archives.  It deals somewhat gracefully with
input data corruption.  Supports multi-volume archives during
interactive operation.  Afio can make compressed archives that are
much safer than compressed tar or cpio archives.  Afio is best used as
an `archive engine' in a backup script.

Afio has far too many options and features (some of which are not even
in the manual page).  Anything in afio that doesn't relate to reading
or writing an archive from/to a simple file or pipe or backing up and
restoring from floppies remains untested.

Typical `tested' afio uses are
 ... | afio -o -v -f -b 1024 -s 1440x -F -Z /dev/fd0H1440
 ... | afio -o -v -s 1440k -F -V -Z -G1 /dev/fd0H1440
 afio -oZvx /tmp/pipe1 </tmp/pipe2
 afio -i -Z -k -v -x -n /tmp/pipe1
 ... | afio -s 512m -c 1024 -Z -T 20k -G 1 -E /backup/compressed -v -o \
       -L /backup/LOG -z /dev/tape 2>/dev/tty8 >/var/adm/backup

WARNING: the code for -F (and -f and -K) is a complete mess.  It will
probably work in the normal case, but don't expect it to handle a
write/verify error correctly.  If you get such an error, best thing is
to restart afio completely.