Use TAR to backup a folder

Use TAR to backup entire folder EBSDEV under /u01/app to a different location in Linux. It also shows all errors/warnings during the file copy.

$which tar
/bin/tar
$ cd /u01/app       NOTE: do not have /u01/app in front of folder name EBSDEV below
$ tar -zcvf /u04/app/backup/m3d_DEV_022015_mt.tar.gz EBSDEV >> /u04/app/ebsde v_backup/backup022015.log

tar: EBSDEV/apps/apps_st/appl/aagl/bin/.sasa.swp: Cannot open: Permission denied
tar: EBSDEV/apps/apps_st/appl/docs/install/.vi_v_pkb.sql.swp: Cannot open: Permission denied
tar: EBSDEV/apps/apps_st/appl/aafs/bin/fssd01_old: Cannot stat: No such file or directory
tar: EBSDEV/apps/apps_st/appl/aafs/bin/text.txt: Cannot stat: No such file or directory
tar: Error exit delayed from previous errors

To get detail on above errors, use "ls -al" to find that /u01/app/EBSDEV/apps/apps_st/appl/aagl/bin/.sasa.swp is owned by a different OS user, and find file link is missing /u01/app/EBSDEV/apps/apps_st/appl/aafs/bin/fssd01_old -> /bin/fndcpesr, etc.

NOTES:

1. If "-h" is used (e.g. tar -zhcvf  ...), it ditches the symlinks and copies/brings in the actual files they pointed to. Without '-h", it retains the soft links.
2. It can back up multiple folders to one file. It is useful in R12.2.

$ cd /u04/app/EBSDEV

$ tar -zcvf /u04/app/backup/m3d_DEV_beforeSSL.tar.gz  fs1 fs2 fs_ne EBSapps.env >> /u04/app/backup/backup1005.log

To decompress/untar/restore backed-up folder EBSDEV in file /path/to/m3d_DEV_022015_mt.tar.gz (or copy it to a new location first):

$ mkdir temp
$ cd temp
$ tar vzxfp /path/to/m3d_DEV_022015_mt.tar.gz
It will create folder EBSDEV under current folder /temp/

The options stand for verbose, extract, pass thru gzip first, specify file, preserve permissions. "p" is important when trying to restore a directory.

Now, "find EBSDEV -type f | wc -l" shall match the counts on source and target folders. With "-type f", find does not count symlinks (symbolic link).

BTW, zip also can be used to backup a (smaller) folder:

$ zip -r flie_name.zip folder_name
"-r" is to get all subfolders.

gzip can be used to compress a big file (but it is slow):

$ ls -al java*.*

-rw-------  1 user group 5842435627 Jan 18 12:07 java_pid1583.hpro

$ gzip java_pid1583.hprof

 $ ls -al java*.*

-rw-------  1 user group 697002093 Jan 18 12:07 java_pid1583.hprof.gz

$ which gzip

/usr/bin/gzip